Tuesdays with Gorney: Lane Kiffin is having the last laugh

© Brett Patzke-USA TODAY Sports

Media days are usually predictable affairs.

All the coaches are excited for the season, confident that this is their year or at least say so publicly to put on a good face. They’re tanned and ready to go. The players all come pumped up and ready to hit the field. This is going to be the best one yet, they all say.

I’ve covered countless media days across all conferences and it’s pretty much the same everywhere you go. Coaches have talking points. The media asks the same stuff and is happy that there’s a nice buffet. Did someone say open bar? Everybody has a great time. Nothing much is accomplished.

Except this year has been a little different.

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Yeah, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy stepped in some hot beer when he basically admitted at Big 12 Media Days to drinking and driving “a thousand times in my life” after his star running back Ollie Gordon was arrested for DUI (and isn’t expected to be suspended) this offseason.

Gundy issued a statement later saying his words were about “nothing specific” but we’re also not fools. We totally got what Gundy was saying.

SEC Media Days also got interesting when Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin called out radio host Paul Finebaum on his own air – and this one was classic Kiffin. He had been hanging onto this takedown from Finebaum years ago when Kiffin was still coaching USC (before getting fired in the wee hours of the morning at LAX after flying back from a loss to Arizona State).

“Top-flight players are staying away from Lane Kiffin because of his reputation,” Finebaum said on College GameDay back then. “How did someone like Lane Kiffin ever get these jobs? How did he land the Raiders job, at Tennessee and particularly the one at SC? Most people think it’s because of his father, Monte, a defensive wizard.

“In some respects, Lane Kiffin is the Miley Cyrus of college football. He has very little talent but we simply can’t keep our eyes off of him.”

Now at SEC Media Days, Kiffin – with an almost tongue-in-cheek quality – lambasted Finebaum to his face with the kill shot of, “Really, I don’t know what you’re good at.”

Finebaum has gotten a lot right over the years, some wrong. He’s been on a tangent recently that USC coach Lincoln Riley is no good and that Deion Sanders would be the best replacement if Riley leaves for the NFL or someplace else.

Maybe he’s right on the Riley take, maybe he’s wrong.

But Finebaum wasn’t totally off in criticizing Kiffin earlier in his career.

The story of his playing days at Fresno State were legendary where he basically left a practice and returned not as a quarterback anymore on the team but as a self-appointed coach.

He had no head coaching experience before getting the Oakland Raiders job that lasted 20 games (a 5-15 record) and a wild finish that was in part to blame on then-owner Al Davis.

© Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

Kiffin then miraculously got the Tennessee job, where he went 7-6. I was in the Florida press box when many people there felt the Vols weren’t necessarily playing that game to win but to not get blown out by the loaded Gators.

He then hastily departed Knoxville (to burning couches on the way out) for USC. After going 10-2 his second season and returning to the dominance expected under Pete Carroll, the Trojans started No. 1 in preseason polls in 2012. They finished 7-6 that year.

Why Kiffin was wearing sunglasses on the Sun Bowl sidelines to close out that season has never been confirmed but there were definitely stories going around. Clearly, USC didn’t want to be there. Kiffin would be fired after five games the following year, another disaster performance in his coaching career up to that time.

If USC officials fired Kiffin because of what Finebaum said on television, shame on them. But what Finebaum said up to that point in Kiffin’s career was hardly inaccurate. Looking back on what Kiffin has now accomplished, Finebaum’s comments look foolish. At the time, they certainly were not.

Of course Kiffin landed some of his jobs because he was Monte Kiffin’s son. That is inarguable. Nepotism is hardly new in coaching or in any other profession.

Whether it was learning under coach Nick Saban and at the same time growing up as a person and as a coach, Kiffin has revitalized his career in spectacular fashion.

Most times, coaches start off hot and then get figured out by their contemporaries and fizzle out before becoming the offensive coordinator at someplace off the beaten path. Kiffin did the opposite. He started off as a punchline and has now developed into one of the top coaches in college football.

Through some disastrous stops, Kiffin went to Alabama as its offense coordinator and learned under Saban, polished his offensive system and play-calling, and then landed at FAU where he went 26-13 over three seasons before getting the Ole Miss job. At FAU, Kiffin went viral by less than half-heartedly promoting National Signing Day on a YouTube video that is still worth watching. It was 50 painful seconds.

Now Kiffin is at Ole Miss and he’s built the Rebels into a legitimate national contender. It would be a disappointment if they didn’t make the College Football Playoff this year. They’re loaded. From smart high school additions to absolutely killing it in the transfer portal, Ole Miss is primed to be a legitimate title contender. Kiffin is a genius play-caller and he’s surrounded by an excellent coaching and recruiting staff.

Kiffin deserves a lot of credit. Since 1964, Ole Miss has had five double-digit win seasons. Kiffin has overseen two of them in the last three years. He has a stacked roster across the board. Kiffin has done an incredible job and finally seems to be a mature and savvy coach with a unique personality that likes to needle from time to time.

That’s fine. The media complains when coaches act like robots who never leave the office and watch film endlessly. They hate hearing from coaches that they don’t know about social trends because they’re too busy preparing for ULM. Kiffin is out fishing, he’s playing with his dog, he’s being an interesting human being.

Was Finebaum wrong in his comments from yesteryear? Absolutely not. But over time, Kiffin has proven him – and many others – wrong. To his credit, Kiffin has become one of the hottest names in college football and on his own merit.

This article first appeared on Rivals.com, the leader in college football and basketball recruiting coverage. Be the first to know and follow your teams by signing up here.

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