Lane Kiffin went off on SEC analyst Paul Finebaum after his 51-10 win over the Clemson Tigers in his debut as head coach of the LSU Tigers last Saturday in Baton Rouge.
Prior to Saturday’s game, Finebaum criticized Kiffin and No. 11 LSU during ESPN’s “SEC Nation” for bringing in former NFL players from the 2022 recruiting class.
In his Monday news conference, Kiffin didn’t take any exception to Finebaum’s harsh remarks. According to Kiffin, whenever Finebaum starts negatively talking about a program, it usually starts to do well.
“When Paul does it, I like it because it usually means something good’s about to happen,” Kiffin said. “He is the definition of rat poison. He sent me today his own comments about, you know, we’re the hottest place to go and, you know, every recruit should want to come here and everything. And so I responded back to him like, thanks for the rat poison, you know, because that’s what your players read. And then all of a sudden they think, ‘OK, we’ve arrived.'”
Finebaum criticized Kiffin for going after former NFL players Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris. The SEC analyst called Kiffin a “child” and questioned whether there were “adults in the room” at LSU.
“He’s a 51-year-old man acting like a 16-year-old. The worst part is there are no adults in the room,” Finebaum said.
Because of the controversy surrounding their return to college football, Kiffin ultimately left Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris off the final roster for the Week 1 game against Clemson. However, Kiffin assured reporters that he would continue to fight for these players.
After the big win over Clemson on Saturday night, Lane Kiffin reaffirmed that he believes that he is doing the right thing by fighting for the kids for an extra year of eligibility.
“My job is not to please you and worry about what you’re gonna write. My job is what I believe is right, and I believe we were fighting for what was right for those kids,” Kiffin told reporters.
After the 2022 class players received a temporary injunction from a court that restored their eligibility for this year, Kiffin used the opportunity to bolster his LSU roster. However, the SEC introduced a rule prohibiting schools from using the players in conference matchups. If the program doesn’t comply, it might face harsh decisions, such as program expulsion, head coach suspensions and financial penalties.
The SEC also sued LSU over the school’s attempt to bring former NFL players back to college football, with Kiffin among the defendants.
Kiffin didn’t have the two players on the roster for the Clemson game.
