Paul Finebaum looking to Brian Kelly, Kirby Smart for insight at SEC Media Day

Paul Finebaum highlighted Brian Kelly and Kirby Smart as the two coaches he’s certainly looking at when SEC Media Day begins. The LSU and Georgia coaches are fascinating individuals going into 2025.

Finebaum argued Kelly wears his heart on his sleeve, so it’ll be fascinating to hear how he spins expectations this fall. The Tigers are certainly a contender for the College Football Playoff, but have underachieved so far.

Smart meanwhile, is very smart when it comes to dealing with the media. That really intrigues Finebaum.

“I think what you’ll hear from Brian Kelly is a tremendous amount of confidence,” Finebaum said on McElroy and Cubelic. “He’ll hit some high points about what they accomplished, even though last year, everybody knows it was a major setback, but he’ll be confident. You know, what will other coaches say? I’m really intrigued by Kirby Smart because he’s got, he’s the best coach in the country. He’s got, probably, overall, the most consistent program. But you know … Are they missing something? How confident is he in Gunner Stockton?

“When I saw him recently in Destin, he was having fun with it. Now that’s Kirby being Kirby … I had taken a shot at Gunner Stockton earlier in the day, and Kirby made sure that he appreciated it, but that’s just a smart coach, not one that wears his heart on her sleeve.” 

Finebaum noted that coaches like Kelly and Smart aren’t going to give too much during the big media sessions. But if you listen closely, Kelly and Smart, as well as others, can give you interesting nuggets in the summer.

“So I think those are things … There’s just so many little (things), I think it’s hard to translate to the audience some of the signs that you look for,” Finebaum said. “But you can tell when a coach is about at the end, I mean, they’re just, they’re just literally reciting the talking points. That’s what I don’t think we really want. I mean, if the three of us appear in front of media days, we would probably be careful too, because there’s so many things. I don’t even think it’s the big stage that you’re going to get in trouble on. It’s when you start going to all those other room …

“When you’re getting tired, and somebody fires a question and then you might really get an honest response so late in the day you might get that short fuse. I think that’s when you get the big news sometimes.”