“They Will Turn on Him”: Paul Finebaum Warns Lane Kiffin of LSU’s Brutal Past That Cost Three Coaches Their Jobs

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Despite Lane Kiffin signing a ‘top 3 head coach’ salary ($13 million a year) with the LSU Tigers, Paul Finebaum believes that with all this honey comes the bee. LSU has arguably the most ruthless and impatient fan base in college football. Now that the SEC has moved to a 9-conference game, if Kiffin doesn’t start winning instantly, his expensive honeymoon phase won’t last more than a few games.

“I’m still not convinced that Lane Kiffin is one of the most talented coaches of his era. He knows how to gain attention, but the ultimate test is going to be what happens right now,” Paul Finebaum said on TexasAGSTV on June 26. “He has never had this type of pressure on him before. Is LSU a great job? Yeah, but it didn’t work for Brian Kelly, and it should work for him, but how he deals with the pressure is going to ultimately decide.

“And we can sit here in late June and ask which fan base turns on a coach more than any other, but I dare say the LSU fan base is in contention for number one, because they have turned on every other coach.”

To prove just how cutthroat this environment is, Finebaum pointed directly to LSU’s brutal track record with its last three head coaches. Look at Les Miles, who spent over a decade building a powerhouse program and even won a national championship for the Tigers back in 2007. But when the team started playing badly, the fans turned on him, and he was fired mid-season in 2016.

Then you have Ed Ogregon, which is an even wilder story. He coached what many considered the greatest college football team ever in 2019, winning a national title with a 15–0 record. But college football is a business of ‘What have you done for me lately? Just two years after that, the fans got fed up with off-field stuff and sluggish performances. He left after the 2021 season.

Most recently, they did the exact same thing to Brian Kelly. He had a solid run with double-digit win seasons, but a rough patch in 2025 was all it took. LSU got so fed up that they willingly paid a mind-blowing $54 million buyout just to get him out of the building.

Finebaum says this is the exact “pressure cooker” Kiffin is walking into. At Ole Miss, Kiffin was a total god for leading them to 10 wins and the playoffs. But at LSU, the fanbase treats a 10-win season like a complete failure because they only care about national championships.

On top of that, because Kiffin wanted to win a title immediately, LSU boosters went berserk in the transfer portal, hauling in the No. 1 transfer portal class of 2026 and over $40 million in roster value. Since the boosters spent so much on Lane Kiffin’s grand year one, it’s only fair to hold him to whatever expectations they have for him.

Despite all the hype, Kiffin has never won a Power Five conference championship or reached a national title game in his 12+ years as a college head coach. Lane’s never been exposed to this much pressure before. Finebaum believes this LSU gig will show us what Lane Kiffin is made of.

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