TUSCALOOSA, Ala. _ No one on the University of Alabama football sidelined would have been blamed if they had done a double-take or two during Saturday night’s game against West Virginia.

Yes, that was Lane Kiffin, who was not only calling the Crimson Tide’s plays as offensive coordinator but on the sideline next to head coach Nick Saban.

“It was actually different, a little bit,” said senior guard Arie Kouandjio, who also called it “interesting.”

While Saban said after the 33-23 victory that Kiffin called a good game, on Monday he added that he liked having him be so hands-on with the players – especially since Alabama had a first-time starter playing quarterback, senior Blake Sims.

“I think it went really well,” Saban said. “I think if he wasn’t on the sidelines, we would have had a lot more issues, maybe more issues than we could overcome to be successful in the game. We did a really good job of managing Blake and helped him manage the game as much as you could ever do it. I don’t think anybody could have done that had he been in the press box. I think that was critical, too.”

One of the little ways that Kiffin helped Sims was to call the first play of every possession on the sideline before the offense went out, giving the quarterback one less thing to think about. He could also directly tell the players what he wanted during time outs and be more thorough when talking with them while the defense was on the field.

“It’s a good thing because he can tell you what he sees and if you just listen to him, you’ll be able to follow up and it helps you out,” senior fullback Jalston Fowler said about the former Tennessee, Southern California and Oakland Raiders head coach

Not being the press box probably also gave Kiffin a better feel for the flow of the game and what Saban likes to run in certain situations. For example, when Alabama had third-and 6 at the West Virginia 36-yard line early in the third quarter he asked if they were in four-down territory and without having to relay anything called a run to try and set up at worst what should have been a fourth-and-short situation.

Granted, it didn’t work out that time, but it appears that two of college football’s most interesting personalities will remain side-by-side during games for a while.

“That got decided two weeks ago,” Saban added. “That got decided, ‘this is how we’re going to play this game, this is what we got to do, this is the sidelines, this is the game administration,’ so it was practiced. Wasn’t just like, ‘OK, let’s go do it this way.’ Lane did a really good job, the whole offensive staff did a good job of getting the information, but I think from a game management standpoint, it really went well.”