How long was Lane Kiffin at Alabama? A closer look at Ole Miss HC's professional career
Lane Kiffin re-launched his career at Alabama after he was fired as the USC Trojans head coach in 2013. Kiffin was the offensive coordinator of the Alabama Crimson Tide under Nick Saban for three seasons (2014 to 2016).
The traditional view is that Kiffin revamped Alabama's offense at a time when passing offense was starting to become ubiquitous in college football, and the Crimson Tide was starting to look obsolete. He breathed new life into the program, and his mercurial partnership with Saban gave Alabama the 2015 national title. In 2022, Saban spoke about the relationship.
“When I met with him about coming here, I said we have to change, we have to study and we have to figure out all these RPOs and all this spread offense and these motions and all these things we do,” Saban said at the time, according to AL.com. “And Lane is a really smart guy. So he was a good guy to really dive into this.”
The relationship, according to this version, ended in chaos. In December 2016, Kiffin accepted the head coaching gig at Florida Atlantic with the expectation that he would remain with the Crimson Tide through the end of the season. Saban had other plans, firing him two days after the victory over the Washington Huskies in the Peach Bowl.
A new book details a far more complex relationship between Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban
A new book called “The Price: What It Takes to Win In College Football’s Era of Chaos,” by journalists Armen Keteyian and John Talty, shows something far more troubling than a mercurial relationship.
According to the book, the two often butted heads during their shared time at Tuscaloosa. The book highlights an incident in which Saban threatened his agent, Jimmy Sexton.
“That son of a bitch,” Saban said to his agent, according to the book. “I’m going to fire you, Jimmy, for ever talking me into hiring that narcissistic prick.”
The book shows alleged conversations between the coaches or of the coaches with third parties dissing each other. According to the book, Kiffin never bent the knee to the so-called "Saban way" of doing things.