Paul Finebaum Warns Pressure Is Mounting on Major SEC Football Coach

The LSU Tigers and the Ole Miss Rebels are going to be tied at the hip for the foreseeable future.

That's due to Lane Kiffin spurning the Rebels for the Tigers this past offseason. Kiffin had a great six-year tenure at Ole Miss, going 55-19.

He led the team to four double-digit win seasons in the last five years. That includes going 11-1 last season and leading Ole Miss to its first College Football Playoff appearance.

Lane Kiffin's Ole Miss Exit

The team would reach the semifinals before losing in the final seconds to the Miami Hurricanes. However, that run was without Kiffin as the Ole Miss administration didn't allow him to coach after his decision to leave for Baton Rouge.

That upset Kiffin and soured the end of his tenure. To make matters worse, he gave an interview to "Vanity Fair" in which he said it was hard for him to recruit at Ole Miss because players' families didn't want them to live in Oxford.

Louisiana State Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin looks on prior to the game. | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

"[They would say], 'Hey, Coach, we really like you. But my grandparents aren't letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi,'" Kiffin said. "That doesn't come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus' diversity feels so great: 'It feels like there's no segregation. And we want that for our kid because that's the real world.'"

But the reality for Kiffin is that he doesn't need to be focused on Ole Miss anymore. He decided to move on, and now it is time to do just that. Being the head coach of LSU comes with a ton of pressure. It's not the same as at Ole Miss, which was happy just to make the CFP.

Paul Finebaum's LSU Warning

ESPN's Paul Finebaum spoke about these expectations on "The Paul Finebaum Show."

"At Ole Miss, he built the program back," Finebaum said. "He was beloved. He didn't really have to do anything but have a good program. That is not the case where he is now. He has a little bit of breathing room this season. That is, unless the bottom falls out, and then he has none. LSU fans are great fans, in my opinion. But they tolerate nothing but championships."

Lane Kiffin Has Never Experience This Pressure

Think about LSU's previous coach, Brian Kelly. He was considered one of the best in college football when he took the job. He won nine or more games in his first three years.

However, he never made the playoffs, and when things got rocky last season, they moved on. That's the pressure Kiffin is now under.

The move from Ole Miss to LSU gave Kiffin a bigger stage, better resources and a clearer path to competing for championships. It also removed any margin for error. At Ole Miss, sustained relevance was enough to make him a star.

At LSU, only elite results will keep him that way, which is why his focus has to be entirely on proving he can deliver in Baton Rouge.

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