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One of the first viral moments that college football analyst Paul Finebaum had on ESPN came in 2013 when he said Lane Kiffin in some respects was “Miley Cyrus from College Football.”
At that time, Kiffin was not considered the high -level trainer, which he is currently at Ole Miss. Kiffin, like Miley Cyrus, had a famous father in NFL-Monte Kiffin-as was a legendary coach with the defensive schemes he cooked up to help win the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a Super Bowl and Nebraska Cornus’s two national championships.
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Miley Cyrus participates in the 66. Grammy Awards in Crypto.com Arena on February 4, 2024, in Los Angeles, California (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images to Recording Academy)
Lane Kiffin was a short head coach of Oakland Raiders before taking Tennessee Volunte’s job and finally USC Trojan’s job. When Kiffin’s tenure began to ductage on the southern cal, Finebaum made the notorious comparison.
Finebaum remembered the moment in a recent conversation with outkick founder Clay Travis. He said he was no fan of kiffin because of how he left Tennessee, but after making the comparison, he heard it from his wife and staff.
“I ended Soliloquy with ‘Lane Kiffin is Miley Cyrus from College Football.’ Miley Cyrus wasn’t hot at the time, “Finebaum said. “And I went out of the set – nobody talked to me. I didn’t realize Kiffin was one of the boys. I am coming on a plane in Atlanta, I still live in Birmingham, I land. My wife picks me up. And she says, ‘Why in the world did you say the stupid things about Lane Kiffin?’ She said, ‘I don’t think they’ll ever want you back on the show.’ Gene Wojciechowski took me to the airport and said, ‘It was the stupidest thing you’ve ever said.’ “
Finebaum said he remembered to wake up on Sunday after his viral “College Gameday” moment for phone calls from bosses at ESPN and Breaking News at “Sports Center.”
Mississippi Rebel’s main coach Lane Kiffin looks at over the fourth quarter against Georgia State Panthers at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on August 30, 2024. (Petre Thomas/Imag images)
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“I go home. Everyone is angry with me. I turned it up. I go to bed. I wake up. I grab my phone and stumble into the kitchen,” he said. “I got a phone call from 860, which is Bristol, Connecticut, I tilt on the TV, ‘Sports Center’ – Breaking News, Lane Kiffin fired on the tarmac after losing to Arizona State. And the next thing I saw? Me calling him Miley Cyrus from College Football.
“And it just jumped up. Kiffin held it against me. He brings it up in every interview. I cost him his ‘dream job’, even though he had had a great deal since then. It just became part of the plot of Lane Kiffin and myself.”
Kiffin has risen from the lowest low to one of the top main coaches in college football.
After his departure from the USC, he became an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Nick Saban in Alabama. He was then head coach of Florida Atlantic before Ole Miss Job opened up.
Kiffin has led Ole Miss to a bowl playing performance in each of the first five seasons he has been at the helm. He has also had three 10-win seasons.
Ole Miss Rebel’s main coach Lane Kiffin speaks to the media under SEC Media Day at Omni Atlanta Hotel on July 14, 2025. (Jordan Godfree/Imag images)
Currently, Ole Miss # 4 is in the nation with a 5-0 record to start the year. The rebels topped the then no. 4 LSU last week and rose up the vote. They have a goodbye this weekend before they are ready to play Washington State on October 11th.
