Paul Finebaum rips Lane Kiffin’s ‘fraudulent’ presser with LSU: ‘Don’t try to con all of us’

Paul Finebaum doesn’t buy Lane Kiffin claiming to be oblivious to his own salary when we all know how much the head coach is making at LSU.

Kiffin left Ole Miss and the chance to coach in the College Football Playoff for LSU, and during his introductory press conference, he insisted it wasn’t for the money. That’s probably true considering Ole Miss was willing to match LSU’s offer, but to accentuate the point, Kiffin claimed he doesn’t know the details on the contract he just finished signing.

“I’m telling you right now, I don’t know what my contract is here,” Kiffin said during the Monday press conference. “That’s not very financially responsible.”

In case Kiffin is reading this, you just received a seven-year, $90 million deal with LSU plus incentives that even include bonuses if Ole Miss appears and advances in the College Football Playoff this season. But Paul Finebaum doesn’t believe this is the first Kiffin is hearing of his contract. Tuesday morning on ESPN, Finebaum ripped the opening presser, saying there’s no way Kiffin is the only person in America who doesn’t know his salary.

“That is one of the most fraudulent things I’ve ever heard from a head football coach” – Paul Finebaum on Lane Kiffin claiming he doesn’t know his LSU contract details pic.twitter.com/S4yPYioE95

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 2, 2025

“I truly believe that is one of the most fraudulent things I’ve ever heard from a head football coach. ‘I don’t know what I’m making, I asked my agent not to tell me.’ Nobody believes that,” Finebaum ranted on First Take. “Because everybody in America knows what Lane Kiffin is making. It’s been reported on every publication on every broadcast that he could make $12 million from the three schools going after him.

“So, Lane, don’t try to con all of us like you tried to con some of us in the process that you’re doing the right thing, that you’re trying to get the Nobel Peace Prize because you care so much about your players at Ole Miss which you’ve just abandoned…it’s a great story, it sounds good, but it’s pure balderdash. And I’m sorry, I just don’t buy almost anything that Lane Kiffin says anymore.”

Despite admitting he might be rooting for Kiffin to leave Ole Miss if it means getting to see Chef Elizabeth Heiskell run naked through the Oxford Square, Finebaum has been one of the head coach’s biggest critics throughout this process, and throughout much of his coaching career. Maybe he’s been hard on Kiffin, but Finebaum is right about the head coach not knowing his salary. It’s feasible to believe there are aspects of Kiffin’s contract that he might not be aware of. He probably didn’t read the entire contract word for word, but it’s laughable of Kiffin to claim he doesn’t know the $90 million number.