‘Lane Kiffin Was Complimenting Himself’ — ESPN’s Paul Finebaum Calls Out LSU HC’s ‘Disingenuous’ Ole Miss Remarks
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The Ole Miss Rebels are bolstering security arrangements for former coach Lane Kiffin’s return to Oxford for the Week 3 clash against the LSU Tigers. Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU under a cloud just before the Rebels embarked on their maiden College Football Playoff journey last year.
ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum slammed Kiffin for piling the pressure on the Rebels during his weekly news conference before the marquee clash.
Paul Finebaum Slams Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss Misdirection
During Tuesday’s segment of the “Get Up” show, Finebaum slammed Kiffin for his comments about the Rebels being under pressure to win against LSU.
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“The team that Lane Kiffin was complimenting, that was his team last year that he built,” Finebaum remarked. “All those Heisman winners, all that great success. So Lane Kiffin, in his own disingenuous way, was complimenting himself for a great job at Ole Miss and saying that the pressure now was on them. That is not the case whatsoever. The pressure is all on him.”
Both LSU and Ole Miss under new coach Pete Golding are unbeaten this season. Golding’s Rebels beat the Charlotte 49ers 41-9 and the Louisville Cardinals 41-38. Kiffin’s Tigers blew out the Clemson Tigers 51-10 and the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs 45-14.
Kiffin’s Tigers boast college football’s best PFN College Team Defense Impact score of 95.7 versus the Rebels’ 75.1. Golding’s Ole Miss has earned a PFN College Team Offense Impact score of 79.2 versus LSU’s 81.8.
According to ESPN, Saturday’s game will represent the first time since 1962 that the Tigers and Rebels will meet with both teams ranked inside the AP Top 10.
During his news conference, Kiffin hyped the Rebels’ returning players and superior record to LSU last season.
“I mean, I guess there’s real safety issues and stuff, so there’s people that have a plan for that, it is what it is,” Kiffin said. “But I told the players today, men, like, ‘You don’t have anything to worry about as far as like attention on you all week. There’s gonna be so much attention and hatred on me; you just get to go and play.’
“I said, ‘Really, the pressure is on them,” Kiffin said. “We won seven games last year. They won 13. They returned two Heisman candidates. How often does that ever happen in the same backfield? We had it one time with Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush. And the second-longest winning streak in the country. So, you guys get to go play. The pressure is not on you.”
In six seasons in charge of the Rebels, Kiffin turned Ole Miss into an SEC and college football powerhouse.
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The polarizing coach compiled a 55-19 record at Ole Miss, but Rebels athletic director Keith Carter denied Kiffin the opportunity to coach in last season’s College Football Playoff.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.
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