The disdain of Paul Finebaum receives a fine bomb at the hands of Stephen A. Smith! After his relentless attacks on popular college coaches like Deion Sanders, Kalen DeBoer, Lincoln Riley, and now, Ryan Day of the Ohio State Buckeyes, it looks like Smith cracked and just had to shut down Finebaum once and for all.

Paul Finebaum has been known to be a rather harsh critic when it comes to both the NFL and college football. While the audience is habitually used to his controversial opinions, he’s been making it to the front page news about the sort of harsh things he had to say about football coaches. First, it was calling Deion a “celebrity coach” and then terming Riley’s time with the USC Trojans as “terrible” and now, he went on to discredit Ryan Day’s time in Ohio even though he’s had a rather successful career so far. Smith had been heard subtly standing against Finebaum when it came to Riley but he couldn’t stand it when the analyst went on to defame Day and hence, an explosion and a war of words erupted in the studio of ESPN.

Stephen A. Smith defends Ryan Day after pointless bullying?

Things are getting heated at the ‘ESPN College Football’ show and on the 24th July episode, tensions ran through the roof between Stephen A. Smith and Paul Finebaum. After Finebaum’s repetitive attacks on Lincoln Riley, he shifts his focus to Ryan Day of the Buckeyes, which is something that triggers Smith to lash out. After Finebaum’s comments about how Day has yet to prove that he can maintain a good record on the table, Smith went on his own rant to protect the Ohio HC’s credibility.

Finebaum’s statements about Day left everyone dumbfounded and even the hosts on the show couldn’t stand it. Smith exasperatedly said, “I would defer to you Mr. Finebaum, my buddy, the mouth of the South, but I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you these last few days. I really don’t. Ryan Day is 40 and 0 in the Big 10 outside of Michigan. 40 and 0! I mean my God, you talk about him like he needs to be thrown out the pasture.” While Day might not be exiled from the pasture anytime soon since he’s such a tremendous coach, there is something exceptionally and biblically wrong with how Finebaum chooses to critique college football coaches incessantly. With such a harsh retaliation by Smith, you’d think that Finebaum would go on to mince his words a bit but that’s not exactly what happened as he doubled down on his frustration about Ryan Day and his Buckeyes.

Ryan Day is just lucky, as per Finebaum

The Buckeyes fans haven’t been too happy with Day since they’ve lost three consecutive games at the hands of their arch-rivals, the Michigan Wolverines. But would they want him to leave the team? Absolutely not. Day joined the team in 2018 and during the entirety of his 6 seasons with the team, his overall record stands at a staggering 56-8 with 2 conference titles in the showcase. And yet, Finebaum isn’t really happy with how Day has developed the Buckeyes to date and expressed his discontent without a care about what Smith had to say.

Finebaum does admit that Ohio and Oregon will both reach the playoffs but did say that Day is lucky since Urban Meyers’ exit gave him a clear-cut path to come and take over the reins of the Buckeyes. He said, “They’re both going to the playoffs doggy, so calm down here for a second and quit giving Ryan Day a Lifetime Achievement Award because he choked a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter against Georgia. He’s so lucky, he was handed the keys to the Mercedes and yeah, he’s got a few scrapes on it. Nobody’s had an easier transition than this guy.”

The fateful loss at the hands of the Georgia Bulldogs by 42-41 and how they couldn’t convert a 14-point lead into a win continues to be the biggest stain on Day’s legacy and that’s exactly what Finebaum is also targeting. With each of his attacks worse than before, it doesn’t seem like Finebaum is going to change his mind about Day anytime soon, resulting in more pressure for the HC for the Buckeyes.