Paul Finebaum: Ole Miss had 'no business' losing to Kentucky

On Saturday, Ole Miss suffered a stunning 20-17 upset to Kentucky on its home turf. During an appearance on SportsCenter on Monday, Paul Finebaum took aim at the Rebels for their lackluster performance.

“[They’re] not fine,” Finebaum said. “This is the best Ole Miss team in 60 years and they managed to lose to Kentucky. And I’m not dissing Kentucky. I know they took Georgia to the wire, but they still lost to South Carolina, and they’re not an upper-tier team. Ole Miss had no business losing to them.”

The Rebels entered the game on Saturday 4-0 but hadn’t faced any Power Four opponents. Meanwhile, the Wildcats were already 0-2 in conference play and narrowly fell 13-12 to Georgia in Week 4. Kentucky was hungry and took advantage of Ole Miss’ inexperience against talented foes.

In the win, the Rebels’ offense sputtered, tallying 353 total yards while only converting 1-of-its-10 third-down attempts. While 353 yards may not be anything to scoff at for other teams, the Rebels were averaging the most yards per game in the country before the loss.

The Rebels lacked discipline against the ‘Cats, committing eight penalties for a total loss of 53 yards while recording one turnover. In turn, Ole Miss fell six spots in the AP Top 25 Poll, landing at No. 12 this week.

Although Finebaum is ready to call Ole Miss’ postseason hopes into question, head coach Lane Kiffin hasn’t lost faith in his team.

“I’m not going to overreact because we don’t finish a game off,” Kiffin said. “It’s a fair question, but the hit in the mouth and not react, well we came back and got the lead and didn’t finish them off.

“Stopped them and got the ball back with the lead. I’m not going to overreact to that. Now I would’ve if it would’ve kept going that way and we lose don’t ever rally. But, I don’t think that was the issue.”

On Saturday, Ole Miss will have a chance to bounce back as it squares off against South Carolina at 3:30 p.m. ET. The game will air live on ESPN.