Lane Kiffin is just over a week removed from his decision to leave Ole Miss following their 11-1 regular season and likely College Football Playoff berth to accept the head coaching position at LSU.
Kiffin agreed to a seven-year, $91 million deal, making him one of the highest-paid coaches in college football. The move, however, drew intense backlash, despite Kiffin attempting to convince Ole Miss officials to let him coach through their playoff run—a request that was quickly denied.
Legendary coach Nick Saban weighed in, saying he believes coaches can remain on a staff through the end of the season after accepting other jobs and still be effective, though in Kiffin’s case, there was little room for flexibility.
Saban cited Kirby Smart as an example—when Smart left Alabama for Georgia, he took several assistants with him but remained actively involved with the Crimson Tide, helping them win a national title before officially leaving.
“I mean, Kirby left right after the SEC Championship and we were going to the playoffs. I said, ‘OK, you can go these days and do this, and you can go to the bowl game. Here’s when we’re going to practice. Here’s when I expect you to be here. It was never a problem,’” Saban said.
However, after Saban gave that example, Kirk Herbstreit referenced a different scenario involving Kiffin during his time at Alabama.
“You did tell Lane [Kiffin] to leave after the semifinal against Washington and [Steve Sarkisian] took over the play-calling,” Herbstreit added,
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Saban went on to explain the reasoning behind that specific decision, contrasting it with instances when he allowed other coaches to remain on his staff through the end of the season, even after they had accepted other jobs before postseason play.
“That was a situation where Lane was struggling to handle taking a new job, hiring a new staff, recruiting new players at a new place—which was Florida Atlantic—while doing his job [at Alabama] the way the players and the rest of the staff expected. So we mutually agreed it would be better for him to just move on. So it is what it is.”
Lane Kiffin played a key role on Nick Saban’s Alabama staff for three seasons, and while Kiffin can be a polarizing figure at times, he maintains a strong relationship with Saban, often calling him the greatest coach of all time and crediting him for much of his growth as a coach over the years.
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