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Former Alabama offensive coordinator and current Florida Atlantic head coach Lane Kiffin really did not enjoy his time in Tuscaloosa with Nick Saban. He has made that fact pretty clear ever since Saban unceremoniously dumped him before the Crimson Tide’s national championship game in 2017.
However, during his recent appearance on The Dan LeBatard Show, Kiffin threw even more shade Saban’s way and let everyone know just how miserable it really was at ‘Bama.
Here’s a little of what Kiffin had to say about his former place of employment (via 247 Sports)…
“It doesn’t have to be miserable,” Kiffin said on ESPN’s The Dan LeBatard Show. “I used to laugh when I’d walk down the Alabama hallway and see all the national championship pictures. Look at the faces on the coaches. It looks like they’re at a funeral.
“There’s 365 days and you play 14 games, so 351. I like gameday, but it’s only three hours and 15 minutes. You have the best players, so you know you’re going to win. And you’re out there and you’re scoring a million points and a million yards. But the last 15 minutes of the game when you’re up by 30 and you hand the ball off left instead of right, so you get your ass ripped.”
Kiffin had personal experience in “getting your ass ripped” when up by a large margin at ‘Bama.
As for why Saban insists on berating his assistants on the sideline of games they are winning handily?
If Josh McDaniels leaves the #Patriots, maybe Brian Daboll will actually take the call from Bill to return to NE as OC after this tongue lashing from Nick Saban. #SugarBowl pic.twitter.com/Eepao8Y4jc
— Will D. (@WAD1980) January 2, 2018
“He’s just mad to get mad,” Kiffin said. “He’s feeling like everyone’s too comfortable. I don’t know where he gets it from. It’s just like, ‘I need to rip somebody.’ I never understood it. I don’t do it. Someone used to joke that he’d get a memo in the fourth quarter that they showed me on TV more than him, so he was going to make sure that he ripped me to humble me. So I don’t really know why he does it.”
He did admit that Saban is a better coach than he is, but as Kiffin told Sports Illustrated back at the end of the 2016 season, working for Saban in Alabama is “like dog years. Three years is like 21.” Ouch.
Check out Kiffin’s entire interview with Dan LeBatard below…