LSU football coach Lane Kiffin made waves at SEC Media Days this week when he revealed he’s been on a social media hiatus for months, even deleting the apps from his phone. Without social media, Kiffin said he doesn’t read what fans are saying about him. ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith isn’t buying it.
“What I would implore Lane Kiffin to stop doing, stop lying,” Smith said. “Live in your truth and be cool with it. You know what? You do read stuff.”
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Kiffin admitted he regrets the way he left Ole Miss ahead of its first College Football Playoff appearance in school history to take the reins at LSU. His attempt to lead the Rebels in the postseason was shut down by the athletic department in Oxford. But Smith pointed to Kiffin’s ultimate goal of leading a premier brand in the SEC with the resources to win a national championship as his ultimate goal.
“He’s chilling at a university that he wanted to be at,” Smith said. “If he wasn’t going to succeed Nick Saban at the University of Alabama, this is the job that he wanted, okay? And so that’s the reality of the situation.”
Kiffin led the Crimson Tide’s offense under Saban for three seasons, winning a national championship. The legendary coach presented a straightforward strategy of handing the media and his team, something Smith believes Kiffin should take on considering his track record.
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No stranger to messy exits, Kiffin was fired as the head coach from the Oakland Raiders, left Tennessee after one year, and had a complicated exit from Alabama as he tried to call plays for the Tide after accepting the head coaching job at FAU.
“[Saban] might not tell you what you wanna hear, but he would certainly look you in the face and let you know there are levels to which he is on and you are not, and you better watch how you approach him,” Smith said. “That is how Lane Kiffin should learn to live.”
This article originally appeared on LSU Wire: Stephen A. Smith tells LSU football’s Lane Kiffin to “stop lying”
