The Josh Innes Show - The Holier Than Thou Media Continues To Rip Kiffin

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

Let's listen to Paul Finebaum crush Lane Kiffin. I'll tell you where I feel like I really relate to Kiffin...I get the idea of always wondering what else is out there. Can we stop with the idea that Kiffin is a dirtball that trampled a bunch of poor kids? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get no frills delivered. Shop the same in-store prices online and enjoy unlimited delivery with PC Express Pass. Get your first year for $2.50 a month. Learn more at pceexpress.ca. All right. So I know I've talked a lot about Lane Kiffin, but the whole story is fascinating and just the holier than now bullshit that comes from so many of these people in the media. Oh, the poor kid. Let me find this Bill Cowher audio, but my God, this holier than now sanctimonious bullshit from Bill Cowher.

Like, guys, it's a business. It's transactional. I still have to find the number of players that are on the Ole Miss roster right now that have played at multiple schools. Yet when you bring this up, when people are like, oh, my God, the coaches, they keep leaving. And then you get, you come back at people with, well, what about all the players that bounce from place to place chasing money? Oh, that's different because these kids have been mistreated for so long and blah, blah, blah, blah. The coaches have had the advantage forever. Now the players get a little bit of advantage and they get shit on.

No, but they're adults. These are grown-ass people. These are adult people who are getting paid to play a game and they can bounce from place to plays. Oh, yeah, but the players can't just leave in the middle of a season and play. Well, name a coach that's done that. Like Lane Kiffin left, yes, in the middle of the season. He's not coaching LSU at the moment. He's the coach.

He's not coaching them. Like, no, so you're absolutely right. A player has not been able to leave a school and play immediately for the school in the middle of a season. That does not happen. It also does not happen with coaches. People are morons. I'm amazed by how stupid and uneducated people are. But then again, I'm not amazed by this because people are just stupid and uneducated and they don't want to be educated.

They just want to be angry and they want to yell at clouds because that's what these internet dipshits do. so if you operate in the world that college athletics is transactional and that there are no real relationships this isn't the 1960s this isn't the days you're going to look back and go man i had such a great fondness for that coach i played with and man i went out there and he made me run until i vomited then he's shit in my face but you know what i love him that ain't the game anymore chief that world's broken it's over it's done the world we live in now is transactional what can what is the best situation for everybody. What is your best situation? In a lot of cases, it's people leaving and going from place to place year to year. That's the way this thing works. Stop trying to

take something of 2025 and look at it through the lens of 1975. It's over. It's dead. It is a transactional business. And a lot of it has impacted how much I enjoy the sport. And we talk about all the time. My enjoyment of college athletics has taken a hit. It's not because I don't want players to get paid. We've talked about that plenty on this podcast. I'm all about people getting paid, get paid. But the difference between a coach and a player is, again, we talked about it. There are consequences if a coach leaves. There are buyouts.

They don't buyout for a player. A player can make a million dollars. Like, let's say Homeboy, and I don't know, he's making $3 million at Michigan. What if Bryce Underwood just left tomorrow? What would be the situation? I don't know what the caveats or the details of his NIL deal are. But there's no contracts with these guys. So if he wants to leave tomorrow, he can leave tomorrow.

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that are blowing up laying Kiffin for this. let's see what Paul Feinbaum has to say. Finebom joins us now because he has been living and breathing with every move. Lane Kiffin makes it feels like over the last couple of weeks. Paul, we've had a day now to kind of let this marinate. Your thoughts on how all this went down with Link Kippen. Let's see what old Paul has to say. It's just so typical of Lane Kiffin to do something so utterly destructive.

And that's what he did. It's hard to believe really almost anything he said there in that interview. if he wanted to coach these kids, as he put it, he could have. And the simple answer is he would have remained the Ole Miss football coach, where he began the season, where he told these young men, we have a chance to win a championship, and they still do. And what does he do? What Lane Kiffin always does.

He likes a match to the castle that he built, and he runs out of town. Okay, so let's stop there. Yes, he could have coached. Here's where I agree with a lot of people. Like, you ain't going to let the guy. coach. Ole Miss was right to not let the guy coach, and they probably should have determined this weeks ago instead of going on a trip trying to beg the guy to stay. Because it was pretty obvious that Kiffin didn't want to be there and he was going to leave. It was one of those

cake and eat at two scenarios where you've got a guy who wants to get the chance to play for the championship and is going to abandon you. You don't let the guy fucking do that, and I'm on Ole Miss aside there, right? But the argument that if the guy wanted to coach old miss he could again he could but he didn't want to stay there he and i agree i think that kiffin to a degree has played victim in this and all i just wanted to coach those guys and blah blah blah like cool you say what you got to say i it's not wrong he wanted to coach the guys but playing in this world where the ad is the bad guy for making you leave and not coached the team i think is preposterous the ad should have booted your ass two weeks ago when it was pretty evident that you

were, like, they were still having meetings as of Saturday and Sunday, long-ass meetings about whether or not he should coach the team. At some point, I think Matt, my buddy Matt and Baton Rouge brought this up is at some point the AD had to nut up and say, listen, you're either going to be here or you're not. You're either going to be here or you're going to be here next year or you're going to fucking leave. And if you want to leave and you are not going to be the coach here, then we need to dump you.

And they could have done that during the by week and it could have changed a lot of shit, but instead they dragged this thing out. In the middle of the night, although this was in broad daylight. It's utterly disgraceful. There's no getting around it. And Lane Kiffin's trying to blame others. Also, I don't think it's disgraceful. So is your idea that it's utterly disgraceful that a guy left this job?

I agree that the calendar is the issue. If he could have finished out the season, played for a championship, and took a job that he preferred to have, why would that have made him a bad guy? What would have been terrible about that? What would have been dreadful? Why would he have been a scumbag? So to say it's disgraceful, I don't buy that it's disgraceful.

like it was a situation where a guy wanted another job he left for another job and we all would like everybody if they had an opportunity for a job that they wanted and it was offered to them they would want to be able to take that job if another job came up right now I'd look if something that made sense for me and it was a better job than this I'd love to I'd leave we all would everybody would if my boss is here if somebody called them and we're like hey we got blank job do you want but we can't because our contracts and everything don't work out that way like the people bitching about this. Like the guy had an opportunity, he took the opportunity.

The way the calendar worked out, he couldn't take the opportunity without, you know, passing up on coaching the guys in the championship. Oh, by the way, a number of those players just hired guns anyway. That was the big story about Ole Miss, right? They're hired guns. They're a portal-built team. They are hired guns. So cut the shit.

Trying to blame the adults in the room is just so comical. And I'm not terribly enthusiastic when I say all this shay because I've said it so many times before. We talked about this when Al Davis fired him. We talked about this when he walked out on the University of Tennessee after one year in the middle of the night recruiting the players on his roster as he head to the airport. Remember Alabama, Nick Saban gave him a chance. And that was after he got fired on the tarmac at Southern Cal. Nick Saban gave him a chance and he did it again by being unprepared for a national semifinal game. Sabin fired him a week before the national championship game.

Okay, Nick Saban also has been his close confidant mentor and told him what jobs to take. So if your argument's going to be, but Nick Saban even do this, Nick Saban sure doesn't seem to have a problem with the guy. He went to Florida Atlantic and finally a major school gave him a shot again, Ole Miss. He built a program last year he would have left for the University of Florida. Two years ago, he would have gone to Alabama had they bothered to call him, which they didn't. And this year, he did the most predictable thing.

he walks out on his team. Well, good for you. Again, these people, everybody would do these things if given the opportunity. The reality is Ole Miss isn't as good of a position as LSU. Now, do I believe that he'll eventually bolt for LSU or leave LSU? Yeah. But I'm down. Like, I'll get into this bad relationship.

I'm cool with it. Fuck it. I don't disagree with the point that he's a walkaway joke. Now, not all of these situations are fair because, look, I feel like I've got kind of a similar vibe to this guy. I know what it's like to be fired, hired, fired, hired. Sometimes you leave for other jobs. Sometimes you get fired. Like, the guy getting fired on the tarmac and using that against him,

that he got fired at USC. Well, people get fired. Shit happens. You get fired. You know, did you think the guy was going to stay at FAU? And you use FAU against him. Then he gets his job at FAU and then finally gets a big job. So did you not feel bad for the kids at FAU?

Like, I'd like to hear what Paul Feinbaum has to say or had to say when Langeiffin left FAU to go to Ole Miss. That one made sense for you, did it? but like there's just because they're both in the SEC the guy can't leave now he's a scumbag again because of the way the calendar worked out now i think there's some fucked up things about the guy and i don't particularly like the guy but i'm down and i'm here for the party just people are nuts about this shit man it's just like all the shit you read and all these media people being holier than thou sanctimonious people like i genuinely don't believe the guy was chasing money usually that's what people get the most pissed about is oh you left this job for the money you're money hungry money obviously wasn't the issue with the guy the money didn't matter i truly believe him when he said the money doesn't matter now i don't believe him when he says he has no idea i don't know if you saw that he said i have no idea what was in my contract i think that's bullshit but I mean, how do you not know? Like, the first question is going to be, how much do they want to pay me?

Like, I mean, that's just the main thought you're going to have there. So I think he's full of shit there. And I think he's a pretty solid con man. And he's good at it. And he's also a brilliant coach. And if you can have him for some years and he wins some championships, why not? It's worth it. Right?

Like, it's worth the pain. It's worth in four years if Alabama fires Kalin de Boar and Alabama's open. And they say, hey, we want to hire Lane Kiffin and he leaves. Hey, that's the risk you take if it's Texas. Dude, I get it. Like, I'm not Lane Kiff and I'm not on that high of a level, but I can relate to the idea that you're always wondering what the fuck else is out there because there's not a day that goes by that I don't.

And I wish I wasn't like that. And that's not like with like relationships or anything like that, like not with my wife or friends or anything like that. But like jobs, every single day I think about it. There's never been a time that I've just sat down and gone, I'm happy where I am. I never do that. I'm not doing that now. I always wonder what the hell else is out there.

That's not to say I don't enjoy the job or like the people I work for, but I will always wonder that. I think part of mine is because I don't have kids. I'm not like my main focus isn't settling down somewhere and taking care of kids and making them happy. Because my dad could have gone to a lot of places many times when he was working in Baton Rouge, whether they be radio jobs, whether they be the voiceover shit, the Scooby stuff. But he didn't and he claims and who knows if this is true. but part of it is because he was settled in and we lived there and he didn't want to keep moving around and he didn't want to keep chasing these jobs. I've never gotten to that point.

You know what I mean? That's like I can relate to Kiffin in that way. Like, how do you not? Like, it's fascinating to me when there are people that don't think that way. Like, it's wild to me when there are people that aren't thinking about what else could be. And maybe it's a character flaw and maybe I'm just totally fucked in the head and that's very possible. I'm not saying that it's normal because I think that the majority of the majority of,

of people are kind of content with what they are. A lot of people like their hometown, don't want to leave their hometown. I grew up with so many people that went to my small high school. Like our graduating class had like 90-something people, I think. Our whole school had like a grand total of like 500 kids. Didn't go to a big school. And they were all in this little small suburb of Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge Parish. Some of them lived in Addis, Louisiana, Placcom in Louisiana, Bruelly, Port Allen, Louisiana. Just the west side, you know, West Baton Rouge Parish, Port Allen, Brulie, Addis. Right. And some of those people got jobs doing construction or worked at the plant and made decent livings and they married the girl. The number of dudes

that I know, and I don't know the total number, but the number of guys and gals I know who dated in high school and got married in that area is, I mean, it's a pretty high number. Now I don't know how many it is. But I can think of three or four just off the top of head. That seems like a pretty high number for a school that only had, you know, 100 people in the graduating class to have like the number of people that got married. Some of them got married and got divorced, but like it's a pretty high number. So, I mean, it's a small town in that way. Some people are just programmed that way. That's what they want to do. They want to stick where they are and they're comfortable doing that. I've never been that way. When I was in Baton Rouge, sorry, when I got to Houston and me and Barry Warner were pretty close and he kind of took me under his wing and he was like, he would call me the savant. And every day I'd be getting some sort of call or email about a job. And at the time, I was only doing the third guy on the morning show shit, you know. But I would have people reach out to me about jobs and I'd cut them some demos and stuff. And like, L.A. would open up.

I'd be like, Barry, I want to go to L.A. I should be in L.A. And he'd say, savant, you don't know what you don't know. He'd tell me that all the time. And, but I was always looking for something. I was doing the show in Houston. and, oh, a Miami job open. Here's me doing a demo for Miami.

Here's me doing a demo for Dallas. Like, I would do all that. And that just kind of started my world of that. Right? Like, that's just kind of how my world operated. I just always was wondering what else was out there. I don't know why. And maybe it's, I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

Maybe that's the answer. Maybe I'll never find what I'm looking for. I don't know what the issue is. But to relate that to Kiffin, like, I understand it. You know, like, I get it. it. I like on a much smaller scale, but I get it. I understand it. I feel you on that. And I think if you've never operated in that world, then you don't think that way. Like there are a lot of people who are just very content, I'm not judging those people, who are very content living their lives where they

are and don't want to go anywhere else and they love the house they've lived in. They don't want anything new about it. They're comfortable. And I'm not judging you. I, in a way, I wish I felt that way. I am never that way. The second I go somewhere, I'm like, huh, I wonder where the money is at at this place or I wonder what the job is at this place. Like, I always think that way. I wish I didn't. But that's just kind of who I am. So I get Kiffin. So like the idea that he's a scumbag because he's always kind of thinking about what's next and he's ever happy, I can't call him that because that would be hypocritical on my part because I do that all the time. And I have worked at arguably two of the biggest radio stations on the planet. I've worked at WIP and I've worked at

Kishi 95. And at each one of those, I was like, I wonder what's next. I'm kind of bored. I don't know what to tell you. I'm broken in that way. I'm not lying to you. I'm broken. So anyway, more to come.