Skip to main content
Join Now
Team Avatar
Ole Miss

Lane Kiffin gets payback on Paul Finebaum using Nick Saban, Miss Terry

On3 imageby: Andrew Graham11/11/22AndrewEdGraham
ole-miss-head-coach-lane-kiffin-one-safties-playing-rock-paper-scissors-for-starting-role
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin (Maxey/Icon Sportswire)

Lane Kiffin was biding his time for nearly a decade when Paul Finebaum finally slipped up and gave Kiffin the opening to get back at Finebaum for calling him the “Miley Cyrus of college football” while he was still the head coach at USC. And when the SECN personality and host wrote a piece questioning is the Alabama dynasty would keep rolling, Kiffin sprung into action.

Along with referring to the story as “GOAT fuel,” Kiffin apparently texted it to Alabama head coach Nick Saban and his wife, known colloquially as Miss Terry. He told Finebaum as much on a live appearance on his show on Friday afternoon.

“I sent it to him and Miss Terry,” Kiffin said to a chortle from Finebaum. “Trying to turn everybody on you.

So ensued a hilarious back-and-forth of joking barbs.

“Man, I don’t want to make too much out of our relationship but I’ve always felt like we’ve gotten along. But now you are, in addition to tweeting about, you’re making sure he didn’t miss it,” Finebaum said.

“They asked the Taylor Swift favorite song, it’s ‘Karma.’ I just spent like, whatever it’s been, eight years or something like that waiting for my chance to get back at you for getting me fired at USC that time,” Kiffin said. “For calling me Miley Cyrus. So I waited this long to turn Coach Saban against you.”

“All I said on College GameDay in front of three million people as you were mired in a bit of a struggle —” Finebaum said as Kiffin cut him off.

“Including my athletic director who was watching the TV when you said it that morning,” Kiffin said. 

“— all I said was you are the Miley Cyrus of college football,” Finebaum said, finishing his thought.

“I thought that was a compliment but most people didn’t think that was a compliment,” Kiffin said. “But like a lot of your things, people buy into it but when you really study it, Miley’s still going pretty good. So that really wasn’t that bad of a thing to say.”

“And your athletic director obviously wasn’t impressed,” Finebaum said.

Kiffin paused, then dropped arguably the funniest line of the show.

“Yeah, our first half of the game probably didn’t help that, either,” Kiffin said.