Paul Finebaum's 'NOT an elite coach' verdict gets people talking

The Matt Barrie Show segment on Lincoln Riley opened at about ten times the pace of a typical first day on ESPN College Football.

Channel: ESPN College Football Story of September 28, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 132,570 views a day, 10 times a normal first day on this channel (13,184).

Lincoln Riley is NOT an elite coach - Paul Finebaum | The Matt Barrie Show

ESPN College Football already runs far ahead of the sports channels around its size. CBS Sports, SPORTSNET and NFL Films each draw only a fraction of its daily views. A single clip has to move unusually fast to stand out here, and this one did.

"Lincoln Riley is NOT an elite coach - Paul Finebaum | The Matt Barrie Show" opened at roughly ten times the pace of a usual first day on the channel. The comment section is lively too, with about one comment for every two likes.

The title does the arguing. Finebaum, the longtime voice of SEC talk, is aiming at a coach who developed three Heisman-winning quarterbacks: Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray at Oklahoma, and Caleb Williams at USC. Maybe a résumé like that is why so many viewers had something to say?

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The numbers

On a channel that is already the busiest among its peers, this segment still opened far ahead of its usual first day.

the video's first day

usual first day here

13,184

this video

132,570

subscribers

1,400,000

total views

1,535,658,414

views per day

6,682,270

the video

views

66,945

likes

569

comments

264

days online

1

subscribers: this channel and similar channels

SportsCenter NEXT

1,490,000

The Herd with Colin Cowhe…

1,410,000

ESPN College Football

1,400,000

NFL Films

1,390,000

SPORTSNET

1,270,000

CBS Sports

1,240,000

As of September 28, 2026 · Data source: Trari Social News, Trari Traffic Trends and Ranking Platform, Google YouTube

Subscriber, view, like and comment counts are YouTube's. Rates, usual days, rankings, comparisons and categories are Trari's own calculations.