Paul Finebaum Calls Lane Kiffin Unfunny And An 'Underwhelming' Coach As His Long Gripe Continues

Lane Kiffin is among the most popular people in all of college football. Not only does he implement a super fast-paced and flashy offense, but the Ole Miss head coach gets after it on social media as well. He's built a legitimate brand since arriving in Oxford in 2020, but that doesn't mean everyone is on board with it.

Paul Finebaum is someone who doesn't see the appeal of Kiffin, and he's struggled to wrap his mind around not only why so many people seem to appreciate him, but how he managed to land some of the jobs he has throughout his career.

After spending five seasons as an assistant at USC in the early 2000s, Kiffin was catapulted into the head coaching seat in Oakland in 2007 and lasted just 20 games before being fired in September 2008. In December he was hired to be the next head coach at the University of Tennessee, where he would coach just one season before bolting for the head coaching job at USC.

In his three and a half seasons in Los Angeles, Kiffin posted a record of 28-15 including a 10-win season in 2011, but was famously fired at Los Angeles Airport after the team arrived back in town following a 21-point loss to Arizona State.

Finebaum essentially called for Kiffin's firing at USC just before it came to fruition.

"How did someone like Lane Kiffin ever get these jobs? How did he land the Raiders job? At Tennessee? And particularly the one at SC? People think it’s because of his father, Monte, the great defensive wizard," Finebaum said in 2013.

"In some respects, Lane Kiffin is the Miley Cyrus of college football. He has very little talent, but we simply can’t take our eyes off him."

In 2022, nine years later, Kiffin made sure to let Finebaum know he hadn't forgotten about him calling him the "Miley Cyrus of college football" ahead of Ole Miss' battle with Alabama.

"I spent eight years waiting for my chance to get back at you for getting me fired at USC," Kiffin told the ESPN analyst…"For calling me Miley Cyrus. My athletic director (at USC) was watching the TV when you said it that morning."

Paul Finebaum isn't a fan of Lane Kiffin. (Credit: Getty Images)

With Kiffin getting the opportunity to call out Finebaum in person all those years later, after three seasons spent as the head coach at FAU and in the midst of building a nationally relevant program at Ole Miss, the beef appeared to be squashed.

Well, not so fast. Finebaum joined Berry Tramel of Tulsa World earlier this week, and when asked about Kiffin and Ole Miss' chances to be a College Football Playoff team this season, he took the opportunity to take his latest shot at the head coach.

"Everyone in the media is in love with Lane Kiffin, they think he's hilarious. I don't think he's that funny," Finebaum said. "I don't think his tweets are that interesting and his coaching has been underwhelming at times. I'll see it when I believe it."

Finebaum not finding Kiffin's tweets and social media presence all that appealing is no surprise because Kiffin isn't curating his posts to entertain people in their late 60s. Kiffin's tweets aren't ‘for' Finebaum, they're to entertain the masses of a much younger generation while catching the attention of 16-20 year olds who may want to come play football for him in Oxford.

Lane Kiffin has enjoyed some serious success since arriving at Ole Miss in 2022. Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

As for Finebaum's comments about Kiffin's coaching being "underwhelming," that's a bit harsh.

Kiffin took over at Ole Miss in 2020 - the COVID year - and led the Rebels to a 5-5 mark and an Outback Bowl win over Indiana. From there, he went 10-2 in the regular season the year after, regressed to 8-5 in 2022, but came back with an 11-2 campaign a season ago, the first 11-win season in program history, that included a Peach Bowl win over Penn State.

You have to go back to the Johnny Vaught coaching era at Ole Miss (1947-1970) to find the last coach in school history to have multiple 10-win seasons to their name during their tenure in Oxford.