The former LSU Tigers head coach, Brian Kelly, had no problem winning games, but the same can’t be said for winning people over. His personality has never enjoyed the same universal praise, and football analyst Paul Finebaum can advocate for that. The ESPN analyst recently compared the experience of interviewing Kelly to a painful medical procedure.

“Spending 20 minutes with Brian Kelly for three consecutive years every Monday, I think I would rather have a colonoscopy on stage right now without anesthesia,” Finebaum said during his appearance at the 2026 Barrett Media Audio Summit. “It’s that painful. So there’s always a trade-off, and we bought it and ended up dying with it.”

While Kelly was leading the Tigers, Nick Saban started making regular appearances on The Pat McAfee Show. To take Kelly onto a social platform, LSU resorted to Finebaum for a similar weekly segment, and he agreed. The arrangement began in 2023 to counter Saban’s media popularity. Kelly had to appear on ‘The Paul Finebaum Show‘ on the SEC Network every Monday afternoon during the season.

Usually, the standard coach call-ins last roughly 5 to 10 minutes, but LSU insisted on a 20-minute segment. For Finebaum, it was a misery to interview the head coach. Finebaum has a personality of being upfront and offering unfiltered criticism of underperforming coaches.

Reflecting on the situation at the Barrett Media Audio Summit, Finebaum joked that they accepted the deal purely for the high-profile name recognition, but quickly realized it was a mistake. While the idea behind the segments was to attract viewership like Saban, in Kelly’s case, his naturally rigid, corporate demeanor stood out.

Many media reports have also pointed towards Kelly behaving like a detached corporate executive rather than a program leader. Finebaum is not the only one who thinks this way; sports broadcasting legend Dan Patrick shares a similar view on Kelly. After Kelly was fired midway through the fourth season of his massive 10-year, $100 million contract, he said, “I don’t like Brian Kelly because of his personality, or how he is on the sidelines, or how he is in a press conference. It is weird because it does feel like there is no scandal. We just don’t like him.”

And it wasn’t just the media that disliked Kelly. A section of LSU alumni grew distant from the program during his tenure as head coach. It didn’t help that Kelly never tried to build those relationships in Baton Rouge. Even with high school prospects, he maintained a corporate-like demeanor. On his first appearance with the Tigers during a basketball game, Kelly famously adopted a fake Southern accent to connect with the crowd. It backfired, and that moment summed up his entire tenure with LSU.

Paul Finebaum’s comment on the new LSU head coach, Lane Kiffin

The former coach wasn’t the only one on Finebaum’s radar. He also took shots at the new head coach of the Tigers, Lane Kiffin. At the summit, he admitted that interviewing Kiffin is also often incredibly awkward. They start the interview with literally nothing to say to each other. Yet, Finebaum enjoys his segments with Kiffin because of his unpredictability.

“I’ve had a couple of interviews with Lane Kiffin that people say are unlike anything they’ve ever seen,” Finebaum said. “Not because he’s really a good interview, but because he’s just so bizarre.”

Luckily for Kiffin, Finebaum does not have harsh evaluations of the new coach. From his perspective, Kiffin has firmly established himself near the pinnacle of college football coaching.

“I think if you’re objective, he’s not far from the top. I think, after Kirby Smart, Lane Kiffin is probably on the next rung of SEC coaches,” he said.