Kalen DeBoer has spent the last year getting hammered by Alabama fans and college football media.
His demeanor on the sidelines bugs people. He hasn’t commanded the SEC stage as many would have liked. He lost to Vanderbilt for the first time since 1984, shattering the mystique of Alabama football.
Paul Finebaum said all of that and more as DeBoer struggled through his first season replacing Nick Saban.
The ESPN host predicted DeBoer wouldn’t survive if things went wrong. He questioned whether DeBoer was even at SEC Media Days because everyone was talking about Saban instead. He said he wasn’t “that impressed” with what he’d seen from Alabama’s new coach.
Then Alabama went into Athens on Saturday night and upset No. 5 Georgia 24-21. DeBoer’s offense went 13-of-19 on third down — the most third-down conversions Georgia had allowed in 30 seasons. They threw a touchdown pass to a 359-pound offensive lineman. They showed exactly what DeBoer had done at Washington, the creativity and toughness that got him the Alabama job in the first place.
Todd McShay, who has called out media colleagues more freely since leaving ESPN, saw an opportunity. On his Ringer podcast after the game, McShay praised DeBoer’s performance. Then he went after Finebaum directly, calling him “one of the all-time cowards” and promising to elaborate once the calendar flips to October.
“It’s really good to see this for DeBoer,” McShay said. “Because it feels like if Alabama had lost this game after losing to Florida State, and Florida State just lost to Virginia… that place is vicious. Watch that trash, Paul Finebaum, to see how vicious… It’s just not good. It’s just not good. Humanity. Get my little shot in at Paul, one of the all-time cowards. Next week, I can let it all unleash. We’ll explain why later.”
McShay was a regular guest on The Paul Finebaum Show during his time at ESPN. There’s no indication that there was any bad blood between them before this.
The podcast was recorded Saturday night, before Finebaum announced Monday that he’s considering leaving ESPN to run for U.S. Senate as a Republican. So McShay’s comments have nothing to do with Finebaum’s politics and everything to do with how he covered DeBoer.
McShay has been more willing to take on former colleagues since leaving ESPN. Earlier this month, he ripped Jordan Rodgers and other media members for their “I told you so” takes after Arch Manning struggled against Ohio State, calling them “just as horrible, maybe more horrible” than the hype machine that built Manning up before he’d proven anything.
Calling Finebaum “one of the all-time cowards” is just a tad different.
We’ll have to wait until next week to find out why.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.