Lane Kiffin’s Alabama Football Legacy: Checkered like the man
By Ronald Evans
Alabama football rose high and dipped down with Lane Kiffin as offensive coordinator. Let’s consider his Tide legacy and his head coaching future.
In true southern oratorical fashion, we will begin with a confession. This fan thought the Lane Kiffin hire would be disastrous for Alabama football. It wasn’t. Kiffin’s Tide tenure was very good for Alabama football until the end, when it turned bad.
Kiffin taught the Tide and its master coach new offensive concepts. Looking back at the three Kiffin seasons, we are convinced that without the Kiffin influence, Alabama does not beat Auburn in 2014 (55-44) or Clemson for the 2015 national championship.
Kiffin’s performance as a ‘Quarterback-Whisperer’ to Blake Sims and Jake Coker was exceptional.
Is it fair to blame Kiffin for the loss of a national championship game in which he did not coach? We believe it is. Based on the Tide’s performance against Washington, coupled with message board posts from credible insiders, we are convinced Lane checked out mentally in the run-up to the semi-final game.
In December Kiffin needed to find another job and doing so became a complication for a man prone to distraction. To win a national championship with a true freshman quarterback, Alabama football needed the full attention of its offensive coordinator.
Jalen Hurts deserved Kiffin’s full focus and did not get it. When the Tide offense performed sluggishly against Washington, Saban had no choice but to make a change.
Even with the abrupt transition, Alabama almost prevailed. A couple of caught, rather than dropped passes; a couple of acrobatic grabs not snagged by Clemson receivers; a healthy Bo for four quarters – any of those things go differently and the Tide would have been a repeat champion.
Blame for the loss cannot be placed on Steve Sarkisian. Likewise, the 2016 Alabama football defense who fought for 99 plays and ultimately came up short. Games are won and lost from multiple factors.
Making a list of factors in the Clemson loss should start with Lane Kiffin. It is too easy to say, had Kiffin coached in the game, the Tide would have won. The Washington performance strongly suggests otherwise.
Our opinion is firm. Thanks to Lane Kiffin, Alabama football won a SEC Championship and a National Championship – and lost a national championship game. By a little, we came out ahead.
In an interview with Chris Lowe of ESPN, Kiffin had this to say about the Clemson loss.
"“The hardest part was seeing [Jalen Hurts’] face, Reuben Foster, ArDarius Stewart. Some of those guys have come down here to see me since then. It was really difficult because the players at Alabama work harder and dedicate more of their life to football than anyone in America. … So to see the look on their faces after the game was something that sticks with you.”"
Kiffin’s words sound like contrition. We remain skeptical. Lane Kiffin is a lucky man to have spent three years learning from Nick Saban, though Lane describes them as “dog years.”
That experience is not likely to change Kiffin, the man, but it should change him as a coach. Kiffin’s words from the Chris Lowe piece,
"“how dumb would I be not to copy a lot of what Nick Saban did?”"
It is tempting to expound on Kiffin and ‘dumb’ – there is so much history to indicate he is one of the dumbest, smart guys in college football.
In hindsight, we can ask was the Kiffin worth the drama inherent in his personality. Saban certainly chose a much different personality, in choosing Brain Daboll. Read our February profile of Daboll and see that Brian and Lane are nothing alike.
Next: 30 Great Crimson Tiders who were 3-Star recruits
We started this post with a confession and we will end with one as well. We will miss those Kiffin sideline signals of a touchdown pass before the ball left a quarterback’s hand.