Would You Characterize Lane Kiffin As "Authentic?"
Bullying in the SEC, it just means more.
If there is one thing this whole Lane Kiffin Saga has taught all of us, it's that there are many words to describe the man.
His topsy-turvey, reality television-esque journey through this year's coaching carousel will be talked about for years to come, and the general consensus is that Kiffin handled things about as poorly as possible.
From stringing his former program along to his back and forth with Ole Miss AD Keith Carter about his unceremonious exit, some of the words that are on the tip of my and several others' tongues are varied and not exactly kind.
"Authentic" isn't one of those words.
Yet, for LSU beat writer, Harrison Valentine, that's the descriptor he chose to use after presumably thumbing through his thesaurus for a decent amount of time.
You're probably wondering why I used a screenshot of his post on X rather than just embedding it in the article, and you would be right to question my method.
The only problem is that Mr. Valentine deleted the post.
That's right, the internet was so universally aligned with Lane Kiffin being anything but "authentic," that they bullied the beat writer into taking down his original post.
Full disclosure, in my former professional life, prior to joining OutKick, I was a social media manager for several years, so I feel for Valentine.
Reminiscing on posting something and then seeing the immediate and viscerally negative responses sends a chill down my spine just thinking about it, but for the love of God, man, read the room!
Authentic might be one of the last words I use to describe Lane Kiffin, and the only reason Valentine even thought about describing him as such just proves the Tigers are still in the honeymoon phase with their new head coach.
We should probably start bookmarking these posts and revisiting them in three or four years when Kiffin inevitably bolts for Tuscaloosa, but for now I guess it's all sunshine and rainbows on the bayou.
If Kiffin ended up at Florida, I'm sure I'd be the first one to turn a blind eye to all the childish and immature antics he exhibited this fall, but I digress.
Even Harrison Valentine can see Kiffin is about as authentic as a career politician, but unfortunately for him, screenshots live forever.