Paul Finebaum Names the SEC Powerhouse Whose Loss Delighted College Football Fans

In rehashing college football's week 6, Paul Finebaum threw some shade at an SEC team and head coach that took a big loss.

A Week 6 loss for one SEC squad left Paul Finebaum breaking down that team's apparent demise. (Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images) | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Paul Finebaum remains one of the biggest personalities in the SEC and on the Matt Barrie show, he broke down one of the SEC's biggest losses of Week 6. As a road favorite, LSU and their always controversial coach, Lane Kiffin, got the pregame pick from Kentucky from everyone on College GameDay. But it was the home Wildcats that took home the victory, with Finebaum noting that few outside of the Bayou are shedding many tears for Kiffin and LSU.

Finebaum Notes Fan Glee at LSU Downfall

"Of all the games that gave the most joy to people around the country... it was the game in Lexington," noted Finebaum on The Matt Barrie Show. "Because when [Kentucky coach] Will Stein did what he did, outside of the LSU fan base, every other fan base cheered."

After host Matt Barrie admitted that he hadn't seen LSU play in a way that would make a 10-2 finish to the season plausible, Finebaum agreed.

"And LSU paid $53 million to get rid of a coach who didn't look this bad early on in his tenure," Finebaum said of former Tiger coach Brian Kelly. He noted that Kiffin is now 13-13 on the road in the SEC as a head coach and the Tigers still have to play Alabama, Texas, and at Tennessee.

"If they drop another one pretty quickly here, and there are some tough ones, do they just start thinking about next year," pondered Finebaum. He termed Kiffin "a peculiar and often a mercurial coach," but did also admit that he considers the LSU boss "a very good coach."

LSU's Struggles

After the very public firing of Kelly, the subsequent buy-up of Kiffin from within the conference at Ole Miss was a move that was not without controversy. Kiffin then launched into a spirited transfer portal campaign that saw LSU emerge as one of college football's big spenders. After a 4-2 start with losses in Oxford to Kiffin's old team and in Lexington on Saturday to Kentucky, it's fair to think that Kiffin might be the most popular unpopular coach in the SEC, if not America at large.

Kiffin's Prior Controversies

He alienated the Ole Miss fan base by leaving the Rebels behind, as he previously had at Tennessee after a one-season stint coaching there in 2009. Reports intermittently revive of Kiffin's on-again, off-again relationship with Nick Saban during the revival of the younger coach's career in Tuscaloosa-- a relationship which ended with a very public break-up as Saban sent Kiffin packing during the College Football Playoff. And more recently, Kiffin engaged in a stand-off with the SEC about a few NFL training camp playeres he had seemingly poached for the LSU roster.

If college football fans love underdogs, then Kiffin and his massive payday and well-paid roster become a very convenient punching bag-- one that Finebaum noted many delighted in seeing take a Saturday loss in Week 6.