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Lane Kiffin trolls Paul Finebaum over midseason Curt Cignetti take

Chandler Vesselsby: Chandler Vessels01/21/26ChandlerVessels

Lane Kiffin brought an old Paul Finebaum take on Curt Cignetti to everyone’s attention after Indiana won the national championship on Monday. It’s safe to say it certainly didn’t age well.

After the Hoosiers made the decision in October to extend Cignetti’s contract eight years for a total value of roughly $93 million, Finebaum joined an episode of First Take with Stephen A. Smith to discuss. The SEC talking head expressed that he did not like the decision from Indiana, arguing it should wait for things to play out.

“I’m still not convinced that Curt Cignetti is one of the top coaches in America,” Finebaum said at the time. “He’s coached brilliantly this year, but can’t you let it play out a little bit? …Take a deep breath, Indiana. Let the season play out a little bit before you mortage a guaranteed $93 million contract that you have have to figure out a way to pay for down the road.”

Of course, Finebaum is eating crow now for those comments and Kiffin couldn’t pass up the opportunity to call him out. He took to X on Tuesday evening after the Hoosiers 27-21 win against Miami to quote the old interview from Finebaum.

The national championship Monday was the first in program history for Indiana and capped off a 16-0 season. Even more impressive, it came in only the second season at the helm for Cignetti.

The coach also went 11-2 and made the CFP in his inaugural season in 2024, bringing his overall record in Bloomington to 27-2. Certainly no one is thinking that the Hoosiers made the wrong decision by extending him in the middle of the season now. In fact, they likely consider themselves lucky to have him locked up through 2033.

Monday night’s win needed a couple of big plays, including a 12-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter from Heisman-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza in which he shook off several Miami defenders. It was the defense that ultimately sealed the victory, however, with an interception from Jamari Sharpe with 44 seconds remaining.

Now the challenge will be keeping the momentum from this historic season going into next year and continuing the build the Indiana program into a perennial contender. At least right now, however, Paul Finebaum is looking pretty foolish for his comments about Curt Cignetti.