Paul Finebaum addresses the viral 'jabs' between him, Lane Kiffin at SEC Media Days

Lane Kiffin has found a home at Ole Miss after some struggles as a head coach. That includes issues at USC, where he was fired amid criticism from media members. That included criticism from ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum.

Years later, Kiffin clearly hasn’t forgotten the jabs that Finebaum took at him, which he partially attributes to his firing. He brought those memories back at SEC Media Days while speaking to Finebaum in a series of jabs that went viral.

Now, while making an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, Paul Finebaum has responded to those viral jabs.

“You know me,” Paul Finebaum said. “I never want to end with what looks like the feud of media days, but let me give you a fact or two. We interviewed Kiffin like everyone interviewed Kiffin on Monday. I think we talked to him at about 5:45. He said what he said and it was the exact same thing he said when I was with him in Oxford last year and on a previous appearance.”

According to Finebaum, it was more interesting that the story went viral than that Kiffin made the comments at all.

“Why on Thursday that became the story of the week, other than Nick Saban, I have no earthly idea. I’m entertained by it, but I think it shows the dichotomy between reality and the aggregated viral social media world that we live in.”

While Finebaum and Kiffin do have some history thanks to his past comments about him, the two didn’t have any feud that Finebaum was previously aware of.

“It’s not a recent history, I can assure you because Kiffin and I this week were very friendly off the air. I gave him personal condolences on his dad. We had communicated quite a few times over those past two or three weeks. What he did is what he always does with me. He goes back to 2013 and he re-litigates the famous appearance I had on College GameDay when I called him the Miley Cyrus of college football,” Finebaum said.

“But he used that as the precursor and then he just started joking about all the times I was ruling and writing Nick Saban off, which I was not even paying attention to him. I was just, ‘Okay, I’ve heard this before. I’ve heard that before.’ And I laughed. It was a little more somber because of his personal circumstances. We shook hands and we said goodbye. It’s amazing. I thought we were good until I looked at Twitter and found out we weren’t.”

Lane Kiffin jabs at Paul Finebaum over USC firing

Lane Kiffin being fired on the tarmac by USC has become a major part of his history as a coach. It’s a firing that he believes Paul Finebaum had a key role in and that’s why he brought it up during SEC Media Days.

“You really did,” Kiffin said.

“Because it is a true story that the athletic director and the president were on that trip. We were playing that night and you were on College GameDay and you had to make your big splash. They were watching it, because I know the other person in the room that was watching it with them. And you said, what a joke I was, I’m the Miley Cyrus of college football coaching and I should be fired. They looked at each other and later that night, I was fired.”

Lane Kiffin didn’t stop there, though. He kept going, making sure that he took the chance to tease Paul Finebaum now that he had the chance to do so.

“But hey, look what happened. I would never have gotten to work for Coach Saban. All of these other things wouldn’t have happened. So I appreciate you for helping getting me fired… So you were wrong on that,” Kiffin said. “I mean, you put me down with that. Really, I don’t know what you’re good at. You predicted Coach Saban was done, that didn’t happen. You basically said Miley Cyrus stinks and she’s still going.”