Paul Finebaum: Lane Kiffin 'knew what he was doing' with Vanity Fair article, shot at Ole Miss

Paul Finebaum isn’t surprised by anything done by Lane Kiffin these days, even his eyebrow-raising comments in a recent Vanity Fair article. Kiffin, referring to Ole Miss’ history with racism and race-related issues in terms of recruiting modern-day players, was just the latest jab at his old stomping grounds, per Finebaum.

Kiffin did issue an apology for the comments because he didn’t mean them as the end-all, be-all negative. But even with a four-hour interview and an in-depth piece, Finebaum claimed he knew Kiffin was smarter than that.

“Wasn’t outraged, because I feel like I know Lane Kiffin well enough to know that he is simply just behind the curtain, pulling the strings like he always does, he’s the Wizard of Oz,” Finebaum said on McElroy and Cubelic. “He knew what he was doing. Now I say that, adding that very few people know what they’re doing in a four-hour interview, you’re likely to say anything. I just think he saw the opportunity to take one more swing with his baseball bat at the piñata, which is Ole Miss, and he hit it square across the top with his Louisville Slugger. 

“I don’t think in the very end it’s going to matter a whole lot. A lot of people’s feelings were hurt, and he ended up talking about things which have really no relevance in today’s college football world about what happened in the past. It’s relevant, it’s important, it ought to be discussed. But in the context of college football, we got off track last week, and Lane Kiffin, I’m sure, ended the week laughing, because that’s how he is, and that’s who he is. He’s still a really good coach, and I think the pressure is going to be intensified around him and on him, but I’m not saying that he has to do anything in his first year. He’s got universal support from everyone in that state and everyone at that university.”

Finebaum said it’s fascinating to see Kiffin go about in this way, even at this point in his career, especially with the expectations at LSU. For how good a coach as he is, the facade is still there.

“Well, I think you’re right, and the one thing that we forget sometimes when we’re classifying him as either a villain or a clown or a puppeteer is that he’s a superb football coach,” Finebaum said. “And you know this because you’ve done a lot of his games, but he cringes when people attack and criticize his philosophy and his strategy and his game selection, because I’ve been at the other end of that, and I know you have, because he really feels like he knows what he’s doing. And I think that’s the hardest part for people to understand that beneath all of this, this facade is one of the best football coaches in the country.”