Paul Finebaum says Lane Kiffin doesn’t get credit for Ole Miss success anymore
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Paul Finebaum is drawing the line, right now in fact.
The ESPN college football analyst and SEC football historian was on the set of SEC Nation during SEC Network’s leadup coverage to Thursday night’s Fiesta Bowl, which was also a College Football Playoff semifinal featuring Ole Miss. You know, the same Ole Miss team that Lane Kiffin left to take the head coaching job at SEC rival LSU.
With Kiffin off to Baton Rouge, taking some of the current Ole Miss coaching staff with him, and with Pete Golding succeeding Kiffin in Oxford and leading the Rebels against Miami in Thursday night’s showdown, Finebaum gave his perspective on the late-season coaching chaos. And his verdict was that Kiffin is yesterday’s news regarding what Ole Miss is doing right now.
“When you beat Georgia, when you beat the reigning SEC champs in the Sugar Bowl, that old guy is no longer your coach. The guy that led you to victory is,” Finebaum said. “I think that’s really galvanized this team. Nobody will mention Lane Kiffin’s name anymore. It is not his team anymore. He may get a bonus, but Ole Miss folks want nothing to do with (Kiffin) anymore, in a good way.”
Surely, Kiffin will be watching Thursday night’s semifinal showdown, from somewhere. But he won’t be anywhere close to the Ole Miss sideline that he used to patrol, and that was Finebaum’s point during his pregame rant.
It’s Golding’s show now at Ole Miss.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
