Lane Kiffin made it clear the first time he stepped behind the podium as the LSU head coach. He took counsel from two of his previous mentors: Nick Saban and Pete Carroll, before making up his mind about LSU when the playoffs were looming above Ole Miss.
Now, after months of rivalry brewing between the two schools because of that one incident, and all of it finally reaching a fever pitch on the day Kiffin steps foot in Oxford again as LSU head coach, Nick Saban made an admission that completely invalidates everything Kiffin claimed about Saban.
On College GameDay, Saban revealed how he had no part in Kiffin’s switch to LSU.
Nick Saban Denies Prompting Lane Kiffin for LSU Switch
“Well, you know, I have coaches call me all the time and ask for advice about what they should do, and typically, what I do is ask them questions: Where do you think you can win? Where do you think you fit?” Saban said on College GameDay, according to ON3’s Nick Kosko.
“And I also say, ‘Why can’t you win at where you are now? You have a great quarterback. You have a great running back. You’re in the playoffs. You have a chance to win the national championship. So why do you have to go someplace else?’ So, but everybody makes their own decision. I don’t tell anybody where to go, but just so everybody knows here, I am used to getting booed in the SEC.”
Even if it was just questions that Saban asked Kiffin during his switch, they led him straight to Baton Rouge, and there’s no denying it. Framing his role as a passive sounding board asking harmless existential questions about national titles and roster talent, Saban effectively hung his former protégé out to dry.
Except the receipts are permanent.
Lane Kiffin Has Receipts, and a Hot Environment to Return to
“I told the story at the press conference, but I was torn. When I called Coach Saban and talked it through with him, he said: ‘You know, Lane, you’ll always regret if you don’t go to LSU — it’s the best job in America,’” Kiffin recalled while speaking at The Leadership Power Breakfast, according to WAFB Channel 9’s Jacques Doucet.
“And when he said that, it really made the decision for me. And as I’ve looked at it, it has pushed me; it has gotten me out of a comfort zone. That we were doing amazing things (at Ole Miss), but you come here, and you feel the power of the place, and it drives you every day to even go to another level.”
Whether Saban directly prompted it or not, none of that matters to the outrage bubbling in Oxford, mixed with the anticipation for Kiffin’s return.
Kiffin’s security concerns are entirely valid—and handing 45,000 glowing golf balls to a bloodthirsty home crowd certainly isn’t lowering the temperature.
A win on the scoreboard is everything for the Rebels, but the atmosphere waiting in Vaught-Hemingway is shaping up to be a three-ring circus unlike anything else this season.
Nick Saban Makes Blunt Admission About Lane Kiffin Before Ole Miss vs. LSU Kickoff