Nick Saban didn’t hold back on several topics involving his former assistant coach — new LSU bench boss, Lane Kiffin.
The legendary Alabama coach addressed two critical topics during ESPN’s “College GameDay” on Saturday.
Saban talked about the advice he gave Kiffin, who is being represented by the same agent, Creative Artists Agency’s Jimmy Sexton.
Kiffin was supposed to appear on the show, but he canceled.
The seven-time national championship-winning coach was adamant that Kiffin should have been allowed to coach Ole Miss through the College Football Playoff, citing other instances where it took place.
When approached by Kiffin for advice, Saban said the first thing he asks any coach in that situation is: “What do they want to do?”
“I never tell anybody what they should do,” Saban said. “I just try to bring some thought into it so that they can make good decisions for themselves and their family and their future.”
Saban said Kiffin was “confused” about what his next move should be.
The Rebels are 11-1 and have the potential to make a run in the College Football Playoff for the first time.
But LSU, where Saban also coached, is an elite program in the sport with a different level of resources. Kiffin left for a reported $91 million contract.
“I think this is a difficult circumstance to be in,” Saban said. “I’ve been in this situation before where you finish the season, you want to stay with your team, you want to coach them, whether it’s in the ballgame or the playoffs or whatever it is, but you feel like you owe it to yourself and your family to at least look at other opportunities and consider them and see if they think that’s a better situation for you in the future. And the based on the way the calendar is, that never fits together correctly.”
Kiffin said he wanted to coach Ole Miss in the playoff, a request that was not granted.
Offensive coordinator Charlie Weiss Jr. has been allowed to finish the year with the Rebels before joining Kiffin’s staff with the Tigers.
Saban didn’t know what the issue was after Kirk Herbstreit brought up Bob Chesney sticking with James Madison and Jon Sumrall still coaching Tulane before moving to their new jobs at UCLA and Florida, respectively.
Those schools are competing for the same level of recruits, but Kiffin won’t be joining them in finishing what he started.
“Because those people got together and said this isn’t going to be a problem,” Saban said. “We’re going to let them coach.”
He noted that he always gave his assistant coaches leaving for head jobs clear expectations of what he wanted, citing Kirby Smart bolting for rival Georgia in 2016 with Alabama in the national championship game.
”I said you can go there and do this. And you can go to the bowl game and here’s when we are going to practice, here’s when I expect you to be here,” Saban said.
Saban did say things didn’t work out well in 2016 when Kiffin — then an assistant in Tuscaloosa — tried to double-dip as he prepared to be the Florida Atlantic coach, so the two sides mutually agreed to bring things to an end.
“That was a situation where Lane was struggling to handle taking a new job, hire a new staff, recruiting new players at a new place that was Florida Atlantic, and doing his job at [Alabama] the way the players and the rest of the staff thought he should,” Saban said.
Kiffin is now solely focused on bringing LSU back to prominence, having already signed the No. 1 recruit in the country and bringing back a key assistant coach to the Tigers.
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