Stephen A. Smith, Paul Finebaum believe Lane Kiffin will win national title at LSU
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LSU Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin’s homecoming to Oxford, MS, was spoiled, as the Ole Miss Rebels won Saturday night’s SEC showdown, 32-24.
It was a painful loss for Kiffin, who spoke afterward about the emotions he felt returning to the stadium he called home for six years before spurning the Rebels for the LSU job ahead of Ole Miss’s College Football Playoff run.
As disappointing as Saturday’s result was for the Tigers, First Take’s Stephen A. Smith isn’t selling his Kiffin stock. He expressed confidence on Monday’s episode of the show in Kiffin’s ability to bring a national title back to Baton Rouge.
“I believe that Kiffin will ultimately win a national championship at LSU,” Smith said. “I think he is going to compete for a national championship this year.”
Smith pointed to Kiffin’s ability to get his team back in the game after falling behind 17-0 to start the game and heading into the half down 24-17. The Tigers responded with 17 unanswered points in as hostile an environment as imaginable to tie the game before eventually relinquishing the lead in the fourth quarter.
“To me, had they gotten boat-raced, that would have been an entirely different thing,” Smith added. “I think it says a lot about him.
“I think it says a lot about the cache he’s got at LSU to be in his first year, two games in, and you down 17-0 at Ole Miss and 24-7 at halftime, getting beat down, and you answered the call and made that a thriller in the second half the way that you did.”
Despite the controversy that comes with him, Smith feels that LSU has the right guy at the helm.
“I believe LSU’s gonna win a national championship,” he declared. “Not this year, but I think they’re gonna compete for a national championship this year, and they’re gonna win it all within three years.”
Smith isn’t the only one at the Worldwide Leader who left Saturday night believing Kiffin can go the distance with his new program. College football analyst Paul Finebaum pointed out that although Kiffin never won the biggest games as the Rebels’ head coach, he’s confident he can do it in Louisiana.
“In the last 65 years there, in top 10 matchups, meaning both teams in the top 10 like we had Saturday night, Ole Miss has won two times. Both by Pete Golding,” Finebaum acknowledged. “Kiffin could never do that. He could never win those games. And I think you have to worry whether he can in the future… I think he can.”
The Tigers are currently slated to face two teams in the AP poll top ten, the Alabama Crimson Tide and Texas Longhorns. Finebaum thinks that Kiffin can not only win those games with the Tigers, but, like Smith, he sees Kiffin hoisting a national championship trophy in the not-too-distant future.
“I think he will win those games at LSU,” Finebaum said. “I just don’t think it was going to be Saturday night. Yeah, I sat here the other day and picked LSU, because I’ve bought into what I’ve seen maybe a little early. The scene was just too much.
“Kiffin probably knew that. He didn’t say that, but he probably knew that. But as far as the future is concerned, I really do believe that Lane Kiffin will win a national championship at LSU. Now can Pete Golding do that at Ole Miss? Really doesn’t matter; we’re not talking about that right here. But I think Kiffin can do that in Baton Rouge.”
It’s somewhat surprising to hear Finebaum express such strong confidence in Kiffin, considering his previous criticisms of the controversial coach. However, in the era of a 12-team College Football Playoff (and its inevitable expansion), and with LSU’s resources, it’s not hard to see why Smith and Finebaum have little trouble envisioning a championship in Kiffin’s future.
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