Top 5 Paul Finebaum memes cracking up the internet amid viral Deion Sanders - Lincoln Riley comments
Deion Sanders and Lincoln Riley found themselves in the crossfire of controversial ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum recently. The outspoken analyst questioned the college football coaches' credentials for the coming season in a blunt manner that caused uproar among both fans and analysts.
On ESPN's "First Take" on Monday, Finebaum again chose the two coaches as his main characters and changed tack, linking Sanders, the Colorado Buffaloes coach, to the USC job that he wants to see Riley fired from.
"He's going to be tired of Colorado because quite frankly, it's not prime time. He's done as well as he can with his son and Travis Hunter and all the Stephen A. and Shannon Sharpe appearances. But that's really going to dry up this year because they're not going to be that great.
"But in LA? That would be very different. You put Prime in Tinseltown, and I think you have one of the great combinations in history. ... I think Deion Sanders as the coach at Southern Cal is the answer to the problems."
College football fans on X, as usual, posted hilarious memes reacting to Finebaum's suggestion. Below are the top five.
How Paul Finebaum roasted both Deion Sanders and Lincoln Riley
Paul Finebaum was in rare form last week during the SEC media days, going after both Colorado's Deion Sanders and USC's Lincoln Riley with cutting comments.
First up, he started with Riley, whose team moved from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten, predicting that the coach would get fired and accused him of bailing on Oklahoma because he was afraid of the competition in the Southeastern Conference.
"I think he has an enormous amount to prove because, quite frankly, I think he has been a disaster," Finebaum said. "Let's go back three years, Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC was announced at this moment in time. What did Lincoln Riley do? He ran away. He did not want to deal with the Southeastern Conference and OU."
Next up, during the SEC media days, Finebaum went after the credentials of Colorado in the college football pecking order.
"I know that the media loves this story and we fall all over ourselves, but Colorado isn't important in college football," Finebaum said. "Deion Sanders is. He's a standalone person. He's one of the most charismatic coaches (we have), but Colorado is nothing. They don't matter. They're irrelevant in the big picture of college football."
Deion Sanders and Lincoln Riley will likely be feeling the pressure from both the media and fans, and it shows just how hot their seats are that the noise surrounding their teams has started months before the start of the season.