Chad Withrow: Lane Kiffin commiserating with Pat McAfee over being hated was ‘gross’

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So much of the last college football season was about Lane Kiffin, on the field, in the headlines, and, of course, on ESPN’s College GameDay, which covered the star coach’s move from Ole Miss to LSU relentlessly.

ESPN’s coverage of Kiffin was so extensive that Nick Saban, the most recent addition to the show’s cast and Kiffin’s former boss, had to address his role in advising Kiffin during the transition. To address online conspiracy theories about CAA’s influence on the situation, each analyst shared the name of the agency that represents them.

None of that drama seems to have slowed ESPN down. College GameDay was in Baton Rouge on Saturday for Kiffin’s debut and welcomed the coach on set for an interview. During the conversation, Kiffin revealed that he has leaned on McAfee in recent weeks amid yet another controversy, this time LSU’s push to add players cut from NFL rosters.

“That’s why I’ve really appreciated our friendship and this week, your guidance with me about, you know, because between you and I we’re about the two most hated people there are,” Kiffin told McAfee. “You told me, ‘Hey, just focus on it; don’t worry about the noise. A lot of times, to do great things, you’re going to be hated.”

Kiffin’s dramatic rhetoric drew quite a response from Chad Withrow, who called the moment “gross” Monday on the Hutton & Withrow podcast.

“That exchange was gross between Pat McAfee and Lane Kiffin, I thought,” he said. “They’re both etching their own faces on some sort of Mt. Rushmore of personalities and people caring way too much about them. I like Pat McAfee, but let’s not take ourself that seriously. And also for Lane Kiffin, ‘And to do great things you’re going to be hated,’ he’s acting like he’s putting a man on the moon for the first time.”

“He’s talking about bringing back NFL players to college. This is not a great thing. No one believes this is a great thing. This is a great thing for Lane Kiffin, if he can pull it off. And that’s what it’s all about. It’s always about Lane Kiffin.”

Withrow believes ESPN has helped to rehabilitate Kiffin’s reputation through its coverage, not only last season during his flirtation with LSU but also through an E60 documentary short it put out about the beleaguered coach last December.

“If we didn’t have that sappy, BS, [E60] that ESPN put out about how his life changed … to fuel what people thought about Lane Kiffin, now you’re seeing [it],” Withrow said. “This is the real side of Lane Kiffin. This is Lane Kiffin. This is who he is. He doesn’t care about you; he doesn’t care about me. He doesn’t care about his star quarterback, as long as the star quarterback is healthy and can help him win games.”

Despite having many friends in the media, many of whom have covered Kiffin, they express a similar sentiment. Constantly changing jobs is a defining feature for most college coaches, but Kiffin upped the ante by leaving a College Football Playoff team in-season. The accusations of selfishness will be hard to shirk, not to mention the way Kiffin often goes out of his way to draw attention to himself.

Kiffin, like many famous figures of our age, seemed on Saturday to forget that the backlash he is facing is solely a result of his own actions. Withrow’s response shows the LSU coach is only digging himself a deeper hole with the public each time he makes an unforced error like this.

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