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‘Stubborn Old Lane!’ Kiffin Shares Hilarious ‘Untold’ Nick Saban Stories From Alabama
Legendary coach Nick Saban retired from his post with the Alabama Crimson Tide this offseason, and his coaching tree recently reminisced on some of the best “untold” stories that came from his career. One such story revolves around current Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin who served as Saban’s offensive coordinator with the Tide from 2014-16. The tale centers on one of Lane’s many “ass-chewings” he received from Saban while on staff, but this one appears to take the cake. ESPN interviewed Kiffin and others for its story released on Friday, but this one began in fall camp for the 2016 season. The Tide were running “good-on-good” drills, pitting the starting offense and starting defense against one another.
According to the story, Kiffin had been warned by other coaches to not go overboard and make Saban’s defense look bad, but he had a field day with his play calling, claiming that since he was from the “Pete Carroll camp,” he “wasn’t wired” to let the defense win. “We had a really good day on offense, ran some reverses, threw a double pass and had all these touchdowns,” Kiffin said, “and [Saban] said that all I was trying to do was win the drill and trick the defense and not help the team. I was like, ‘Isn’t that the point in good-on-good situations on offense, to see if you can move the ball?’ “He was furious.” After Saban made his displeasure known, Kiffin went to the opposite extreme for the next practice. “Stubborn old Lane, I ran the most generic, basic, under-center offense I could, sort of their old-school offense they ran under Joe Pendry,” Kiffin said. “And the defense killed us. We’d be third-and-8, and I’d have the quarterback under center.”
After this practice, Saban sought an explanation for why he was putting the quarterback under center in third-and-long situations.
“‘I’m just running what I thought you would want me to run against the defense,'” Kiffin said. “Again, it was just me being smart-ass me.” Saban then cleared the other coaches out of the room, and he lit into Kiffin one-on-one. “I have to sit there, and he is screaming at me, standing over me screaming as I’m sitting in my chair,” Kiffin said. “I thought he was going to fight me physically. So, yes, I got a lot of ass-chewings, but that’s the biggest one and one that no one saw. But I deserved it.” The Tide’s head coach even compared Kiffin to children’s book character P.J. Funnybunny, a rabbit that causes havoc throughout his stories. “He screamed at me that I was the bunny,” Kiffin said, “and we were like, ‘What the hell is that? There’s no way Coach has read a little kid’s bedtime story like that!'”
Kiffin has routinely referred to Saban as “the GOAT” (greatest of all time) in the college coaching industry, and he is able to laugh about this experience now. His personality may still be one that focuses on fun, but it would be amiss to think that he had not learned anything from his former boss. Under Kiffin’s leadership, the Rebels had one of their most successful seasons in the modern era in 2023, gaining 11 wins for the first time in school history and knocking off Penn State in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. Without Saban’s influence, it’s possible that Kiffin would not be the coach he is today, and that is for the betterment of Ole Miss football.
