Paul Finebaum: Lane Kiffin is an underrated head coach

Lane Kiffin is arguably the most talked-about coach inside of the SEC but it’s not always for football reasons. His off-the-field antics catch the eye of a lot of people, especially with his Twitter feed and how he acts sometimes within the media. Even then, the Ole Miss head coach is still having success on the field.

ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum recently gave his take on Kiffin as a pure football coach. He said the Rebels headman is one of the most underrated in the game, despite some of his past issues. Finebaum even thinks some of the disadvantages have been taken away by Kiffin being on campus.

“If you take away the sideshow of Lane Kiffin — all the drama, all the Twitter, all the fun stuff that we all laugh about and joke about — the guy is a terrific football coach,” Finebaum said. “He is incredibly underrated and if you took all of that away and Lane Kiffin was a serious, dour guy like some of these other folks who are in college football, we would probably rank him among the top coaches in the country.

“We look at his past and we hold that against him but you can’t hold against Lane Kiffin what he did 10 years ago at Southern Cal. You can’t hold against him the meltdown at Alabama or some of this other stuff. The guy is a fantastic play-caller. He’s obviously done a great job of organizing. You can win at Ole Miss. While there are some disadvantages because of the size, there are also some tremendous advantages because it is so attractive to go there. You go visit Ole Miss on a late April day and you’ll be hard-pressed to find any place better.”

Finebaum went on to compare him to a direct rival, Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach. Quite a character himself, the ESPN personality thinks Kiffin has done a better job of marketing himself and the Ole Miss program than Leach.

“What I find interesting is the talk of Ole Miss and what we don’t hear about Mike Leach,” Finebaum said. “When those guys came in together, you could have taken a bet that Leach would have been the bigger showman and Lane Kiffin has just wiped him out when it comes to Twitter hits and buzz and excitement.”

Kiffin led Ole Miss to its first-ever 10 regular-season win total ever and a New Year’s Six Bowl with the Sugar Bowl. While the game against Baylor may not have gone to plan, there is still a ton of momentum within the program. Now, the goal will be to take the next step and become a real contender within the SEC.