Paul Finebaum on Lane Kiffin's Ole Miss diversity comments: 'This is Kiffin trying to wipe Ole Miss off the face of the earth'

Earlier this week, LSU head coach Lane Kiffin went viral for comments he made about his former program, Ole Miss. He did so in a Vanity Fair article that has taken college sports by storm now.

In an interview with Vanity Fair’s Chris Smith, Kiffin claimed that Ole Miss‘ “lack of diversity” plagued him on the recruiting trail. The controversial coach departed the program ahead of its first-ever College Football Playoff run last season to take over in Baton Rouge.

“(Recruits would say), ‘Hey, Coach, we really like you. But my grandparents aren’t letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi,’” Kiffin said. “That doesn’t come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus’ diversity feels so great: ‘It feels like there’s no segregation. And we want that for our kid because that’s the real world.’”

Those comments spread rapidly across the sport of college football, and have been one of the biggest talking pieces across all of sports this week. Lane Kiffin continues to add fuel to his feud against his former program, whether intentional or not.

Paul Finebaum claims Lane Kiffin is still bitter at Ole Miss over College Football Playoff

Kiffin later cleaned these comments up a bit in a statement given to On3’s Wilson Alexander. However, the damage had already been done. ESPN’s Paul Finebaum called out Kiffin for his comments on Thursday morning’s episode of ‘Get Up’.

“First of all, the idea that an SEC coach at LSU is breaking big news in Vanity Fair has to be shaking up Fifth Avenue right now. But, it’s Lane Kiffin. The most important thing to factor in here was that this was not a slip of the tongue,” Finebaum said.

“I talked to the writer who did the Vanity Fair piece the other day, Chris Smith. He said he didn’t even ask Kiffin about the racism aspect of it. Kiffin just started riffing. This is Kiffin trying to wipe Ole Miss off the face of the earth. He is still very bitter at them, even though they’re the jolted lover. He’s bitter at them because they wouldn’t let him coach in the Playoff. He has to recruit against them, and he also has to play against them on Sept. 19. That’s a game that will gain a bit of attention.”

Although Kiffin claimed to On3’s Alexander that bringing up the narrative ‘wasn’t calculated,’ it sure seems like the LSU head coach wanted to make sure that the narrative was known. The move has backfired a bit, however, as parents of Ole Miss players have begun playing damage control against the notion. If anything, Kiffin continuing to go after his former program will make that game in Oxford on Sept. 19 all the more intriguing.