Paul Finebaum didn’t have much sympathy for LSU after the Tigers’ Week 6 loss at Kentucky. On The Matt Barrie Show, he pointed to Lexington as the result that brought the most satisfaction to college football fans around the country.
“Of all the games that gave the most joy to people around the country... it was the game in Lexington,” noted Finebaum on The Matt Barrie Show. “Because when [Kentucky coach] Will Stein did what he did, outside of the LSU fan base, every other fan base cheered.”
That reaction lined up with the bigger picture Finebaum laid out after Matt Barrie said he hadn’t seen anything from LSU that made a 10-2 season feel realistic. Finebaum agreed, then highlighted just how far the Tigers have to go.
“And LSU paid $53 million to get rid of a coach who didn't look this bad early on in his tenure,” Finebaum said of former Tiger coach Brian Kelly. He added that Kiffin is now 13-13 on the road in the SEC as a head coach and noted LSU still has Alabama, Texas, and a trip to Tennessee left on the schedule.
Finebaum also wondered aloud whether another loss could push the Tigers toward next year’s planning.
“If they drop another one pretty quickly here, and there are some tough ones, do they just start thinking about next year,” pondered Finebaum.
He called Kiffin “a peculiar and often a mercurial coach,” while also saying he believes the LSU coach is “a very good coach.”
The backdrop to all of this is a messy one. LSU’s move to part ways with Brian Kelly and then bring in Kiffin from Ole Miss came with plenty of noise. Kiffin followed that up with a heavy transfer portal push that helped make LSU one of the biggest spenders in college football.
But after a 4-2 start that included a loss in Oxford to Kiffin’s former team and Saturday’s defeat in Lexington, the coach once again looks like one of the sport’s easiest targets. Kiffin already left Ole Miss with plenty of frustration behind him, and he had done something similar earlier in his career after a one-season stint at Tennessee in 2009.
There’s also the long trail of Kiffin-related baggage that keeps following him around. Reports periodically resurface about his relationship with Nick Saban during his run in Tuscaloosa, and that partnership eventually ended with Saban sending Kiffin packing during the College Football Playoff. More recently, Kiffin was involved in a standoff with the SEC over several NFL training camp players he appeared to have brought in for the LSU roster.
For fans who enjoy seeing a big-spending powerhouse stumble, LSU’s loss in Lexington fit the bill. Finebaum made it clear plenty of people were happy to watch it happen.
In Other News...
Kentuckys New SEC FPI Spot Says Plenty After The LSU Win
ESPNs latest Football Power Index update offered another snapshot of where Kentucky sits in the SEC after the Week 6 slate, and it adds some context to what the Wildcats just did against LSU. The model, which factors in recent results and projects the rest of the season, places Kentucky in the middle of a crowded conference picture alongside a cluster of teams trying to sort out their identities as the year moves deeper into October.
The broader SEC rankings also show how tight the race remains beneath the leagues heavyweights, with programs like Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Auburn, South Carolina, Mississippi State, Florida, Texas A&M and Missouri all carrying their own FPI numbers and projected paths. For Kentucky, the update matters because it reinforces that the LSU win was more than just a good night in Lexington, even if the real test is how the Wildcats build on it from here. [Read more 🡒]
Kentucky's Surprising Rise Faces Its Biggest Test Yet At Oklahoma
Kentuckys unexpected surge has carried it into October with real momentum, and the Wildcats have earned every bit of it. Under first-year head coach Will Stein, Kentucky has gone from a team trying to find its footing to one sitting at 5-1 overall and 3-1 in SEC play after back-to-back overtime wins against South Carolina and LSU, results that have changed the tone around the program in a hurry.
Now comes a different kind of challenge. Kentucky heads to Oklahoma on October 17 for the first conference meeting between the schools since the Sooners joined the SEC in 2024, and the timing could hardly be tougher, with Oklahoma fresh off an upset of then-No. 1 Texas in the Red River Rivalry and sitting at 3-2. For Kentucky, this is the kind of road test that can tell you whether the rise is real or still just the latest surprise in a long SEC season. [Read more 🡒]
Kentucky Fans May Have Just Seen A Program-Changing Night
For one night at Kroger Field, Kentucky football looked and felt like a program that had rediscovered its edge. The Wildcats knocked off No. 10 LSU 35-34 in overtime in front of a sellout crowd, and the setting only added to the moment, with a throwback uniform and a new team walkout ritual helping turn the evening into something bigger than a single upset.
The finish matched the atmosphere, with Kenny Mincheys two-point conversion delivering the winning play and setting off a celebration that spilled onto the field. The SEC later fined Kentucky $500,000 for the storming, a costly reminder of how rare and emotional the win felt for a fan base that has spent plenty of seasons waiting for a night like this. [Read more 🡒]