Paul Finebaum: Lane Kiffin is always to looking to leave

Lane Kiffin has been known for his exits over the years. Now, after his latest one this weekend in leaving Ole Miss and going to LSU, Paul Finebaum says it may just be part of who he is.

Finebaum discussed the latest departure by Kiffin, going from Oxford to Baton Rouge, on ‘The Matt Barrie Show’ on Sunday morning. He thinks, in doing so, Kiffin is not just taking apart all that he built with the Rebels, but a lot of the rehabilitation he had done over the years since how he handled some of his similar situations in the past, whether that be as head coach at Tennessee in 2010 or offensive coordinator at Alabama in 2017.

“He’s giving that up, and he’s also undoing, in my mind, years and years of work to rebuild a tarnished reputation,” said Finebaum. “And, I mean, we’ve all dealt with people that don’t like Lane Kiffin. Tennessee fans never let him forget that he walked out – by the way, for a better job. USC at the time was better than Tennessee. Probably isn’t anymore, but it was in 2010.”

What’s even more unbelievable about this one, though, is, whether continuing to coach was his decision or not, Kiffin has left ahead of what’ll be an appearance in the College Football Playoff for the Rebels. Finebaum thinks that aspect of the decision may say everything you need to know about Kiffin’s thoughts on Ole Miss’ chances this year in the CFP.

“That’s the hard part because I think everybody looks at Ole Miss, but think about this calculus here, and I think Lane Kiffin had to do the math. He looked at his team? Very good, one loss and it was barely a loss because they had the lead against Georgia. And I think he – this is just my thought. He looked at the College Football Playoff pool, and he said we could get maybe a game or two in, but I think Lane Kiffin, in his estimation? He was probably not going to win the title, because if you thought you had a real shot to win the College Football Playoff, you would wait. You would say, you know what, I can, I’ll get Alabama one day, I’ll get this job one day,” said Finebaum. “But, I think he decided that he wasn’t going to win in his mind, and he could win one at LSU, which is what all these guys are ultimately after. And, I can’t come up with any other reason.”

For some people, the grass will always been greener elsewhere. That’s the only explanation to Finebaum as to why Kiffin is bayou-bound at this moment in already leaving for LSU.

“Lane Kiffin is always looking to leave. I’ll leave the psychology to someone else, but he’s not hard to figure out. He’s never satisfied, even though he had never been happier…Kiffin is undoing all of that,” said Finebaum. “And, why is he undoing it? Because there’s something greener across the street. It just so happened to be down the Mississippi River, in Baton Rouge.”