Lane Kiffin Drops Nick Saban’s Coaching Return Bombshell After Taking a Sly Dig at His Winning Tactics

Alabama fans surely would remember the 2015 national championship win. The good old days of Nick Saban as the head coach and Lane Kiffin as the OC, when the team looked unstoppable. And who could forget that 95-yard kickoff return touchdown by Kenyan Drake in the final that showed the level at which Saban’s teams performed at the time? However, now that Saban has retired from coaching, Lane Kiffin may be making every effort to compel Saban to come out of retirement.

Kiffin is now the head coach of Ole Miss and has successfully turned around a struggling program, which hadn’t seen top-12 finishes in more than 50 years. In that sense, Kiffin has successfully replicated Saban’s teachings incredibly, and now, natty seems to be the ultimate aim. Just last season, the program finished with 10-3 overall, and before that, one of the best performances by Lane Kiffin saw the team finish with an 11-2 overall. But Kiffin still wants Saban to come back.

Kiffin, speaking on Theo Von’s podcast, signaled the possibility of Saban making a comeback and delved into the thought process that Saban has developed. “He’s just so wired all day long, to do something for his entire life. Now he isn’t going to sit around and just be a grandpa; that’s not him. So I think because of that, I wouldn’t actually be surprised if he came back in the NFL, even, you know, as head coach, because he’s just so good at it.”

Well, Saban might have retired from the field, but the man’s heart still craves football. The legend returned with a role as an analyst on ESPN’s College GameDay. Moreover, there were discussions about making Saban the college football ‘commissioner,’ who would oversee the smooth functioning of everything.

Lane Kiffin mentioned the NFL, but knowing how it went for Saban when he joined the Miami Dolphins, an NFL return looks rather unlikely. But let’s be honest, Saban’s heart won’t be filled without entering that 100-yard gridiron with thousands of voices cheering for his team. This is what the former Bama coach would ultimately want. But, assuming Saban comes back to college football, will that be good for the sport?

Lane Kiffin further elaborated on Saban’s exceptional performance. So much so that other teams were deprived of prospects, qualification spots, and even top coaches, all of whom Saban used to keep to himself at Alabama. “Too many wins, I think, for a school, not good for them at a certain point. But also not good for a competitive environment throughout the conference when he was taking all the players and winning all the games, no!”

Saban, in his 17 years at Alabama, won 6 national titles and 9 SEC championships. The former Bama head coach not only produced consistent top-ranked classes but also hired coaches who are considered the top minds of the game in the contemporary world. Kirby Smart, one of the most successful coaches right now, served as the defensive coordinator at Alabama until 2015.

Then there is Steve Sarkisian, who was the Bama OC in 2016, briefly, and later donned the same role in 2019. Dan Lanning, who had in 2024 produced an undefeated regular season at Oregon, also comes from the Saban coaching tree. Billy Napier, Mario Cristobal, Jeremy Pruitt, and Will Muschamp had all served under Saban’s tutelage. So, if Saban comes again, surely it could be a one-sided SEC again, as Bama was under Saban, right?

Nick Saban’s winning mentality

Now comes the thing Saban was consistently known for, and he was even berated in many instances due to its excessiveness. The extreme desire to win and compete, the knack of loading up that trophy cabinet season in and season out, and the same expectations under which the players had to perform. Lane Kiffin talks about one of the same instances where Saban’s competitiveness even showed off the field in a minuscule event.

Kiffin recounted his Easter visit to Saban’s home with his children, describing Saban’s intense competition to find the ‘golden egg’ for his grandchild. “He’s (Nick Saban) also so competitive that his grandkid was like one (year old); and all of a sudden, the grandkid found the golden egg while he was with Coach (Saban) way over there. So the coach also was going to make sure that he won, but it was pretty cool to see him like that.”

Mind you, Lane Kiffin’s children, who were ten and twelve at the time, couldn’t find the golden egg. But Saban’s one-year-old grandkid found it with some help from his granddad. That tells you the standard of competitiveness the former Bama head coach has inculcated in his family. The incident, while a lively one, sure points out why Saban became who he is today: one of the greatest of all time.