Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin’s career took a nosedive to what seemed like rock bottom when USC fired him after a 3-2 start to the 2013 season. He found redemption, though, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, when Nick Saban hired him as the Crimson Tide’s QB coach and offensive coordinator.
Saban helped Kiffin get back on his feet, and the team won a national championship in 2015 before Kiffin took the Florida Atlantic job in January 2017. Since then, Kiffin has found himself in the midst of a successful rebuild at Ole Miss that has produced three bowl wins. But what’s the status of Kiffin and Saban’s relationship now?
Ole Miss HC Lane Kiffin Opens Up About His Current Relationship With Former ‘Bama HC Nick Saban
Now, a football season removed from Nick Saban’s retirement, Kiffin and Saban’s relationship is still strong, he explained on “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von.” He told the host the two talk frequently and Saban’s mentorship helped lead him to where he is today.
“Yeah, we do,” Kiffin said. “He’s not a big—like—texter, but we talk every once in a while.”
Kiffin told Von that while Tuscaloosa may have been tense at times, he sees his time there as an important learning experience. He explained that nearly everything Saban does is “old school.”
“No, you’ve got to call him. He did just learn how in the last like two years to text. He had never texted before ever,” Kiffin explained.
“Like when I was an assistant coach there, he was just like, ‘I’m not texting.’ He just refused. It was like that old school,” Kiffin said. “Like he’s got those old-school things that aren’t changing. Then I got a text—like two years ago—from him that said ‘good luck’ or something like that.”
“And I was like to the group, ‘Dude, I got a Saban text.’ This is amazing. This is Vanderbilt beating Alabama. Like, this isn’t supposed to happen. Never thought I’d see this day, and then Kirby [Smart] is like, ‘Yeah, I got one earlier this year too.’ He’s learned how to text,” he explained, emphasizing that Saban still stays in touch with former assistants.
“You get one or two words. But that relationship is almost… like how you can struggle sometimes, like maybe when you’re in it with a parent, and then you get older, you get out of the house. And then you’re like, ‘Dang, man. He was onto something. He was right on those things.’ So, I look back, I was there for three years.”
During his time in Tuscaloosa, Alabama produced three SEC titles, a national championship, 40 wins in three seasons, and countless NFL Draft picks.
“There was friction initially. I look back; it was all my fault. I’m the assistant. He’s the head coach. Whatever he says goes… his way is very like ‘this is the way’. There’s not open discussions about it, and stuff, and I’d worked for Pete Carroll as an assistant. So, that’s all I knew, and it’s just totally different.”
As he referenced, Kiffin coached under legendary football coach Pete Carroll while the silver-haired leader was with the USC Trojans.
“So, you’d come in you’d have an open conversation. Then you’re questioning the process. No, I was just asking. So, I didn’t really know how it worked right away. So, it took a little time… It was just something I wasn’t used to, that way. So, it took a little bit of time,” Kiffin elaborated.
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“But now that I look back, he was so strict on everything, kind of in a parent way, like with his team, with the players, with the coaches, nothing changed.
“He wouldn’t — we won a national championship, and there was a 7:30 staff meeting the next morning. I’m like, ‘What are we meeting on?’ He’s like, ‘We’re behind.’ Because we won the championship and everybody else was recruiting, we’re behind…
“It’s why he is what he is. It’s why he was so great because it was like the standard never changed no matter what.”
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