Lane Kiffin peels back curtain on 'friction' he had with Nick Saban on Theo Von's podcast
Lane Kiffin helped revolutionize how the Alabama Crimson Tide played offense under Nick Saban. The two generally had a great working relationship, and Saban's willingness to rehabilitate Kiffin's image after short and rocky stints ended up redefining the wunderkind's career. That said, Kiffin opened up about the early struggles he had adjusting to coaching under […]
Lane Kiffin helped revolutionize how the Alabama Crimson Tide played offense under Nick Saban. The two generally had a great working relationship, and Saban's willingness to rehabilitate Kiffin's image after short and rocky stints ended up redefining the wunderkind's career.
That said, Kiffin opened up about the early struggles he had adjusting to coaching under Saban. Spending four years with Alabama led to an explosive revamp of the offense, spurring Saban to one of the most successful stints of his illustrious career.
“That relationship’s like almost in a way how you can struggle sometimes – maybe when you’re in it with a parent and then, you get out, you get older and you get out of the house,” Kiffin said on This Past Weekend with Theo Von. “Then, you’re like, man, he was on to something.
He was right on most things. So I look back, I was there for three years. There was friction initially. I looked back, it was all my fault. I’m the assistant. He’s the head coach. Whatever he says, goes. … His way is very, this is the way. There’s not open discussions about it and stuff.
And I had worked for Pete Carroll as an assistant, so that’s all I knew. And it’s just totally different. So like you come in, you have an open conversation and you’re questioning the process. No, I just was asking, have you looked at this? I didn’t really know how it worked right away, so it took a little bit of time.”
Kiffin, who has won 106 of 158 career games over 13 years, said the key to Saban's madness is to never accept success.
“It took me some time to understand, too, when we were winning and playing really well, coaching really well, he was harder on you because he didn’t want you to have relief syndrome,” Kiffin explained.
“He just always had this way of thinking like, you never relax. So he went above and beyond to make sure people didn’t have that. We’d win a game and he comes in and just rips us. They were like, ‘Man, we played great, coached great.’ That was because he was guarding against that because he knew that could happen.”
Winning 10 or more games in three of his last four seasons has helped propel Kiffin to the status he always seemed destined to reach. The Rebels are looking to replace Jaxson Dart, Tre Harris, Trey Amos, and several other key starters from their loaded 2024 team.
