Paul Finebaum says Lane Kiffin is ‘trying to wipe Ole Miss off the face of the earth’
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Paul Finebaum appeared on Get Up on Thursday morning to discuss recent comments made by new LSU coach Lane Kiffin regarding his former employer.
In interview with Vanity Fair this week, Kiffin spoke about the difficulties he had recruiting at Ole Miss given the school’s history with Confederate symbols and other racial issues.
“‘Hey, coach, we really like you. But my grandparents aren’t letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi.’ That doesn’t come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana,” Kiffin told Vanity Fair. “Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus’s diversity feels so great: ‘It feels like there’s no segregation.'”
Kiffin later claimed he didn’t mean to offend Ole Miss with his comments, but Finebaum isn’t buying it.
“The most important thing to factor in here, this wasn’t a slip of the tongue,” Finebaum said. “I talked to the writer who did the Vanity Fair piece the other day, Chris Smith. He said he didn’t even ask Kiffin about the racism aspect of it. Kiffin just starting riffing. This is Kiffin trying to wipe Ole Miss off the face of the earth. He is still very bitter at them even though they’re the jilted lover. He’s bitter at them because they wouldn’t let him coach in the playoffs. He has to recruit against them and he also has to play against them on Sept. 19.”
Kiffin’s exit from Ole Miss was as dramatic as it gets in college football. With his team still alive in the race for a CFP berth, Kiffin decided to leave for SEC rival LSU and was not permitted to finish the season with the Rebels.
Ole Miss later named Pete Golding as its interim head coach and went on to win a pair of CFP games before bowing out in the semifinals.
Kiffin will return to Oxford for a highly-anticipated meeting between Ole Miss and LSU on Sept. 19.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
