Paul Finebaum discusses Lane Kiffin's seminal moment in Week 5, addresses his future at Ole Miss

ESPN college football analysis Paul Finebaum was on campus this weekend in Oxford to watch Ole Miss‘ 22-19 victory over No. 7 Kentucky. It was the Rebel’s first SEC conference game of the season, and definitely their biggest win so far this year as they’re off to their first 5-0 start since 2014. There’s no question it was a big win for head coach Lane Kiffin, but on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, Finebaum proclaimed the victory as one of the biggest of his career.

“There’s been a lot of good moments for Lane, but that seemed to be the seminal moment, the one that really established him,” Finebaum said. “And I know that sounds funny considering last year was a ten-win season, but it just seemed more significant. Everything about being there and the weekend Cole, and winning a game, how many times have we said this and will say it that they probably shouldn’t have won, but that doesn’t matter, they won.”

Finebaum’s experience being on-site for the game clearly impacted his assessment, as he spoke more on the high stakes of the big win during homecoming weekend.

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“And I think now it’s a matter of continuing this path, and it was a big weekend for a lot of reasons, it was not only homecoming where you have a lot of big donors who were there the night before in a meeting and a dinner at the stadium, but you had the recalibrating of the collective,” Finebaum said.

Ole Miss is fresh off of their ten-win season from last year, just their eighth in school history, and looks to be making another run at double-digit wins this year, and Finebaum believes the key to Ole Miss maintaining this success starts and ends with their head coach.

“And I think the key for Ole Miss is really simple, keeping Lane Kiffin there, and that’s not a matter of just offering him more money, he makes a lot of money. It’s just making sure he believes that’s where his path is and I say that reporting back to you that the feeling on campus is was that Lane Kiffin wouldn’t leave Ole Miss for Auburn, just for the sake of argument,” Finebaum said.

There have been talks of Auburn head coach Brian Harsin being in the hot seat after their 3-2 start, and Kiffin being one of the top candidates for the job if it does open up. Multiple coaches from programs across the country have already been fired just five weeks into the season, with a lot of rumors and buzz circulating about which coaches could fill a variety of different jobs.

It’s definitely too soon to know for sure if Kiffin will stay with Ole Miss in the future or go, but Finebaum believes the Auburn job should be considered by Kiffin if it does in fact open up.

“I don’t agree with that, I think Auburn is in a better position to recruit than Ole Miss. What Lane did in the portal this year is phenomenal, but can you do that every year?” Finebaum asked. “Can you live off of that many transfers every year to be competitive with Alabama and Georgia and others in the SEC.”