Hour 2: Paul Finebaum

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Michael Kay (0:31)

This is The Michael Kay Show Podcast.

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I gotta get more Kay.

Michael Kay (0:35)

Listen live weekdays at 1 on the Espn New York app and your smart speaker.

Jake Asman (0:41)

No Michael Kay.

Paul Finebaum (0:43)

No Michael Kay. That's right, Don.

Jake Asman (0:45)

Jake Asven in for Michael as we take you till 3 o'clock. Yankees in the midst of a double header, which is why the Kay stir is out. Cody Bellinger just went deep, so he's stepping up without Aaron Judge for at least a wild card round.

Bellinger, going to need to come through. He does not have great playoff numbers, but hey, there's no time like the present. Let's continue the conversation right now on our show. I'm excited to talk to this guy. I was in the building when he won the Barrett Sports Media Lifetime Achievement Award this past summer. He's the host of the Paul Finebaum show. Paul Finebaum joins us now. Paul, it's Jake Asven in for Michael today. Thanks so much for still coming on.

Paul Finebaum (1:18)

Jake, what a pleasure. Thank you. I appreciate you having me.

Jake Asman (1:21)

So when I knew I was going to get the chance to talk to you, I was pumped because I was locked into that Lane Kiffin return to Oxford in the LSU Ole Miss game. And you talk about a game that lived up to the hype. What was your instant reaction to that game going final in real time watching it?

Paul Finebaum (1:38)

Yeah, it felt like the Kiffin soap opera, which has been going on for nine months, finally got pulled off the shelf like stale bread. It just felt over and it's not over, but I mean, it was a DEFCON one. And just for the audience who doesn't follow this stuff like we do, it got to a point where he tried to play a couple of guys who had been in the Browns camp a few weeks ago. And the SEC told him, you can't do it. And he said, we're going to. And they literally threatened to kick LSU out of the league, potentially costing the school hundreds if not billions of dollars. So the game was almost a sideshow in the drama, but it wasn't a sideshow Saturday night. It was as dramatic a scene as I have seen in college football in a long time. I mean, the F Lane Kiffin signs at game day reached tens of thousands.

But fortunately, nothing happened. There were no incidences. And Lane Kiffin nearly got blown out. His team came back and tied it. And then the coach who he gave the opportunity of his lifetime to, with maybe the best player in the country, ended up winning in the end. So high drama.

But Ole Miss had the last laugh.

Jake Asman (2:56)

Do you think deep down Lane has any regrets leaving or he would still do everything the same if he could?

Paul Finebaum (3:04)

I mean, he has the conscience of a serial killer. So, no, I don't think he has any regrets whatsoever.

I don't think he has emotions. He tried to tell the people after the game and said, you know, I'm human.

But as he said that, he also said that crowd out there is a result of me because I built this program. It is a fact that Ole Miss hasn't won a national championship in 65 years, but it's also a fact that 12 years ago, Ole Miss with another coach beat the number one team in the country in the same place, Alabama. And so they're capable of it. But the game was really about one person. It wasn't Lane Kiffin, it was Trinidad Chambliss, who came alive last year. A year ago today, he wasn't even the starting quarterback. He came from Ferris Junior College. And I don't think it's really arguable. Most people right now believe he's the best player in college football. He's the quarterback.

Jake Asman (3:57)

It's interesting because everything we hear about him is, well, he's not very tall. He's an older prospect. I'm talking about it from just an NFL standpoint here. So there's a lot of jetfeds in my life who are like, ah, I don't know about Chambliss. Do you think he's an NFL quarterback when you watch him, Paul?