Lane Kiffin tried to shift the spotlight this week, saying the pressure heading into Saturday’s trip to Oxford belongs on Ole Miss rather than LSU. Paul Finebaum wasn’t buying it.
During an appearance on Unsportsmanlike Thursday morning, Finebaum was asked by ESPN’s Michelle Smallmon whether he agreed with Kiffin’s take. His answer came quickly and bluntly.
“That is completely bogus, you know that and I know that, there’s not a person in America watching or listening to this who doesn’t know that. There is simply no way that is true,” Finebaum said. “What is true is he was complementing himself, that was his team he was talking about with the 2 Heisman candidates, that was his team that won 11 games last year and the team that he inherited was terrible… but that is the narcissistic way that Lane Kiffin operates… it is pretty sad we’re 2 days away from the biggest game of the year in college football, somebody may really be injured but we don’t believe it because it’s Lane Kiffin who put out the injury report.”
Kiffin’s comments came earlier in the week as he looked ahead to his highly anticipated return to Oxford. He told his players there would be plenty of attention aimed at him, then argued that the burden is really on the Rebels.
“I told the players today, man, you don’t have anything to worry about as far as attention on you all week, there’s going to be so much attention, hatred, everything on me, you just get to go play,” he said. “I said, really, the pressure is on (Ole Miss).
They’re the team that, we won 7 games last year, they won 13. They return two Heisman candidates.
How often does that ever happen in the same backfield? … You guys just get to go play.
The pressure’s not on you.”
Finebaum also pointed to the bigger issue surrounding Kiffin: trust. As the SEC injury report came out Wednesday night, LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt was listed as doubtful for Saturday’s game against the Rebels, even though there had been no prior reports that he was injured. With Kiffin’s history in the background, Finebaum said it’s hard for people to take everything at face value.
However it plays out, the matchup itself is the draw. LSU and Ole Miss are set for a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff Saturday on ABC.
In Other News...
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The moment only got bigger from there, especially when McAfee initially wrote the prize as $100 million on a novelty check before correcting himself on the air. Whitehead came away with the actual $1 million prize, and he said he plans to split it with a friend who submitted the winning entry, a tidy finish to one of those rare campus scenes that feels made for replay clips and Saturday folklore alike. [Read more 🡒]
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The panels view of the matchup was split, which only sharpened the edge on a game that already had plenty of attention. Most of the crew leaned Ole Miss, while Nick Saban went the other way and Kirk Herbstreit stayed out of the pick entirely because he is on the call for the game, leaving the pregame conversation with just enough disagreement to keep the spotlight fixed on Oxford. [Read more 🡒]
Lane Kiffins Family Is Forcing Ole Miss Fans To Confront Something Ugly
As Ole Miss gets ready for a marquee showdown with LSU on Saturday night, the noise around Lane Kiffin has spilled well beyond the usual game-week chatter. His family has been caught in the middle of it, with inappropriate jokes and offensive behavior aimed at people who should have no part in the football noise at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
Layla Kiffin posted a message on social media asking for kindness, and Landry Kiffin spoke publicly about the hurt caused by banners and comments that crossed a line. It is the kind of ugly sideshow that tends to surface around big games, and it puts a different kind of pressure on a night that was already set to draw plenty of attention on ABC at 7:30 p.m. ET. [Read more 🡒]