While some networks don't buy into the Ole Miss Rebels being a good national story, the SEC Network's Paul Finebaum shared his patented evergreen pro-SEC message and claimed the team Lane Kiffin forsook is "America's team."
The Rebels take on the Miami Hurricanes in the Fiesta Bowl on Thursday night. They would face the winner of Friday night's Peach Bowl matchup between the Oregon Ducks and the Indiana Hoosiers in the CFP National Championship Game on Monday, January 19.
Finebaum believes Ole Miss earned that label almost solely because of the anti-Kiffin narrative.
“It’s such a cliché to say that somebody is America’s team because somebody is always America’s team, but this Ole Miss team would be,” Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie Show. “It’s not really so much that anyone cares about Ole Miss, but that the country in unison is really starting to hate Kiffin."
Ole Miss's 'America's Team' narrative shouldn't be all about Lane Kiffin
America absolutely hates Kiffin at this point. Most notably, every hot yoga studio in the Oxford, Mississippi, area. With that said, the program's likability goes beyond the negativity surrounding the new LSU Tigers headman.
Pete Golding has helped rally the team, starting with the moment he allegedly told Kiffin to hit the bricks after accepting the LSU job. Kiffin wanted to stay and coach, but AD Keith Carter went down the charmingly petty road and allowed every other coach that's Baton Rouge-bound to be with the team. That they've responded to Golding's leadership is the real story, as is Trinidad Chambliss's historic emergence that makes him The Grove's version of the Auburn Tigers' 2010 season with Cam Newton.
Kiffin's name carries weight, though, and apparently, this country thrives on negativity. Finebaum is always going to adhere to those principles while crafting the narrative.
If Ole Miss pulls off one or, heaven forbid, two, more upsets, the Rebels will solidly be "America's Team." And they'll force SEC programs everywhere to look under the hood and reassess what constitutes a winning roster in the rev-share era.