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By Aman Sharma
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Lane Kiffin still hasn’t found a way past Alabama, and Paul Finebaum isn’t letting it slide.
The LSU Tigers lost 31-13 at home to the Alabama Crimson Tide, and Finebaum used his appearance on “The Mat Barrie Show” to question whether Kiffin can win the games that matter.
“Yeah, I mean the simple headline is Lane Kiffin got punked,” Finebaum said. “And it wasn’t even close. I mean, he just looked foolish, and it was two years ago on this weekend when a similar event happened down there. That was really the beginning of the end for Brian Kelly.”
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LSU slipped to 6-3 in Kiffin’s first season, and its home winning streak is gone. He’s now lost six times to Alabama as a coach without a single win.
For a while, an upset seemed possible. LSU went in front 13-10 with three minutes left in the third quarter, then watched Alabama score the game’s final 21 points.
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Finebaum admitted he’d bought into the hype after wins over Clemson, Mississippi State and Auburn, a stretch he dismissed as “all bad teams.”
“Okay, against the good teams that hasn’t happened, and I just kept wanting to believe that he had figured it out, but he hasn’t,” he said.
He’d previously said Kiffin would eventually get things turned around and win a national championship. That belief has taken a hit.
“But you have to wonder if Lane Kiffin isn’t just all sizzle and no substance,” Finebaum said.
Kiffin’s own breakdown leaned on the box score. LSU outgained Alabama 457 to 285 yards, yet the Tigers went 0 for 4 on fourth downs and struggled to finish drives in the red zone.
Sam Leavitt piled up 380 passing yards on a night with 48 pass attempts, according to Kiffin, while Jackson Harris caught 11 passes for 166 yards and Trey’Dez Green added 10 for 85.
“But again, you got to score touchdowns in the red zone and make some of the fourth downs,” Kiffin said.
Texas and Tennessee come next, with Arkansas closing the regular season. Even at 9-3, LSU’s College Football Playoff case would sit with a committee weighing three losses.
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