Alabama
Can Lane Kiffin be Alabama football’s Nick Saban successor? He’s expressed doubts
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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Alabama
West Alabama Works to grow modern manufacturing program with increase in state funding
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WBRC) – West Alabama will lead modern manufacturing efforts in schools around the state.
The state legislature recently approved a financial boost that will help a group in that part part of the state coordinate training for students for years to come.
Millions of dollars from the state’s education trust fund will pay for West Alabama Works to train high school instructors in modern manufacturing. The state allocated an additional $1.5 million to expand modern manufacturing classes in our schools. bringing the total to nearly $2.5 million.
West Alabama Works has been contracted to run modern manufacturing training programs statewide in K-12 schools.
That training includes working with instructors and showing them creative ways to teach the trade to students. It’s relatively new in career tech programs.
Modern manufacturing courses tie those students in with jobs when they finish the program.
“Our students can come in that two-year program, four semesters, and they come out with a job, a possible AAS degree, seven to 10 stackable credits,” explained Donny Jones, Executive Director of West Alabama Works. “But, most importantly, they’ll be making great money.”
More than 31 Alabama schools have modern manufacturing programs or will have them by Fall of 2024.
Nearly 1,700 students in Alabama are enrolled in high school modern manufacturing programs, according to Jones.
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Copyright 2024 WBRC. All rights reserved.
Alabama
Will your child have to repeat 3rd grade under Alabama Literacy Act? Some exemptions, opportunities for retesting
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – The Alabama Literacy Act went into full effect this past Friday after the state released third grade student reading scores for the school year. State education leaders want parents to know that just because your child didn’t meet the reading requirements, it does not mean they have to repeat third grade.
According to the scores, 9% of third graders, roughly 4,800, are not reading well. However, the Alabama Educators Association says under the act, there are a few exceptions made for some students so they won’t have to repeat:
- If a child is in their first two years of learning English language, they will not be required to repeat based off their reading scores.
- If a child has a disability, then they may have an alternative set of learning standards they’re required to meet, excluding them from meeting the reading test scores on the ACAP.
- If child has disability and they have already been retained once in kindergarten, 1st grade or 2nd grade, and have received at least two years of intensive remediation, they may be exempt from repeating the grade.
- If a child has been retained two years, and has received reading remediation for two years, the child can apply to move forward a grade with a continued focus on reading.
There are also opportunities for students to re-test this summer, so if they were close but didn’t meet the proficiency level, they will have the opportunity to try again.
“There’s a lot of data and science behind allowing students to stay with a particular peer group, so all of this is intended to sort of merge the two interests so that the child does not stay too far behind,” said William Tunnell, the Northern Region Manager for the Alabama Educators Association.
State education leaders say you’ll want your child to prepare before they re-test, and they recommend talking with your child’s school to determine a plan for success.
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Copyright 2024 WBRC. All rights reserved.
Alabama
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