Paul Finebaum reacts to fiery Brian Kelly postgame rant after win vs. Florida

Paul Finebaum is all in with Brian Kelly after LSU’s 20-10 win over Florida Saturday night. Even after the Tigers had a lackluster offensive performance, despite Kelly’s fiery postgame comments.

Kelly didn’t take too kindly to a question about the offense struggling for the third straight game, despite a third straight win. He cut off a reporter and told him to “stop” while going on a rant and also asking “what do you want from me?”

For Finebaum, he thought it was entertaining and probably a little funny. If LSU keeps winning, Kelly will have the last laugh.

“I’m ‘Paul In’ because that guy asked him a question, that was me four years ago, and I would still be asking another follow up,” Finebaum said on SportsCenter. “But give Brain Kelly credit. He came after Dabo a couple weeks ago, and now he’s trying to become a new Herm Edwards. 

“I mean, you have, you have to give Brian Kelly credit for being ingenious, because that was such a great answer, and that’s all people are going to be talking about. But don’t forget, his team wasn’t bad defensively. Offensively? I’m sorry, I don’t want Brian Kelly coming after me.”

But the question seemed to be valid considering LSU forced five DJ Lagway interceptions. One of LSU’s touchdowns was a pick-six, so the Tigers only scored 13 offensive points.

Garrett Nussmeier was 15-of-27 for 220 yards, one touchdown and one interception. The follow up question to Kelly mentioned third down, where LSU was four-of-14 during the game.

“Stop, really? Is that the first question?” Kelly asked. “We won the game 20-10. Try another question. What do you want me to tell you? I just laid it out for you. We played the game to win the game. We played the game to win the game … “It’s one game. Last game, we were good on third down. You’re looking at this from the wrong perspective. LSU won the football game, won the game. I don’t know what you want from me. What do you want? You want us to win 70-0 against a Florida to keep you happy?”

Finally, the run game got brought up. Less than 100 yards on the ground, while averaging 3.8 yards per carry, is less than ideal. The numbers are a little skewed, though, as 51 of those yards came on a long run from Caden Durham in the final drive of the game. But Kelly pointed to that play as to why LSU can run the ball before going into a rant about the group of reporters in Baton Rouge.

“We can run the ball,” Kelly said. “Did you see the last play of the game? That’s all you need. You just need one. Those are ridiculous questions and I’m getting tired of it. That football team just worked their tail off to get an SEC win and you want to know what’s wrong. You know what? You’re spoiled, you’re spoiled. This team is 17-1 at night, 17-1. Give them some respect, how about that? Give them some respect instead of microanalyzing every little thing. This is ridiculous for a group of seasoned reporters. That kind of question is so out of line.”