OXFORD — Nick Saban is retiring as Alabama football’s coach after 17 seasons and seven total national championships. And fourth-year Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin will be one of the names thrown around when it comes to Saban’s replacement.
Kiffin, 48, served as offensive coordinator under Saban in Tuscaloosa for three seasons, winning a pair of national titles before renewing his head coaching career at FAU in 2017.
But, among the national media reporting on the situation in the immediate aftermath, Kiffin’s name isn’t at the top of the list. Action Network insider Brett McMurphy touted Oregon coach Dan Lanning as Alabama’s most likely target. ESPN reporter Pete Thamel listed Lanning, Kalen DeBoer, Dabo Swinney, James Franklin, Mike Norvell and Marcus Freeman as possible targets.
Kiffin himself has expressed doubts when it comes to replacing Saban, for whom he has maintained great respect since leaving Alabama.
“What could you possibly do right if you don’t win the national championship every year?” Kiffin told USA TODAY’s Blake Toppmeyer in 2022 . “‘You’re going to follow Nick Saban at Alabama?’ No, that would not be a good decision for anyone.”
Why Alabama football would make sense for Lane Kiffin
The pull of the Alabama job can come down to one word: Ceiling.
The Crimson Tide has won six national championships since 2009. It has played for three more. Ole Miss just finished its first 11-win season ever. Alabama has won 11 games in every season since 2010.
Since 2011, Alabama has finished atop 247Sports’ recruiting class rankings more than half the time. The level of player consistently available to the Crimson Tide is different than what Kiffin has access to at Ole Miss.
Comments Kiffin made after the Rebels got pummeled this season by Georgia, a program with a similar blue-chip ratio to Alabama’s, are relevant here.
“We would have to recruit at a better level, do a better job of recruiting,” Kiffin said when asked what the Rebels have to do to compete with Georgia.
Kiffin’s familiarity with the program is certainly a factor as well. And, though Kiffin is one of the best-compensated coaches in the sport, earning over $9 million in 2023 once bonuses are considered, a switch to the Crimson Tide would almost certainly come with a considerable pay rise.
Why Alabama football wouldn’t make sense for Lane Kiffin
All of the points above about Alabama’s ability to require talent at a level Ole Miss can’t belong to a different era of college football.
Alabama, before NIL and the transfer portal changed the sport beyond measure, operated at a level reachable by a select few. Have those changes, and the impending 12-team playoff, made the game’s top tier more accessible?
Ole Miss intends to find out.
The Rebels have one of the best NIL infrastructures in college athletics. And it has translated into sustained success in the transfer portal, culminating in Ole Miss’ best class yet this offseason.
Even so, it’s certainly more difficult to win at the highest level at Ole Miss than it is at Alabama. But that fact comes with intense pressure to deliver. At Ole Miss, Kiffin can sustain an 8-5 season like the one he endured in 2022. He’d lead every hot seat list on the internet if he went 8-5 early in his Alabama tenure.
There are family factors at play for Kiffin in Oxford, too. Even if he covets the Alabama job, it might make more sense to wait.
David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.
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