Last year, Lane Kiffin was serving as Alabama’s offensive coordinator while also preparing to take over as Florida Atlantic’s head coach.

Ultimately, coach Nick Saban decided it was too much and replaced Kiffin with Steve Sarkisian just before the National Championship Game.

However, Kiffin still has a good feel for the Alabama program, and told ESPN’s Chris Low that he believes a title game matchup against Georgia is exactly what the Crimson Tide were hoping for:

“It’s the matchup that Alabama wanted,” Kiffin said. “If you look at who beats Alabama, it’s spread teams with a quarterback that can move around like Baker Mayfield. They probably wouldn’t admit it, but Alabama would prefer this matchup rather than the other way. Whenever Alabama has played the more traditional offenses, that is when Alabama usually shuts them down — the Georgias, the LSUs. So that favors them.

“Georgia doesn’t run the quarterback, but if you watched Georgia in the [Rose Bowl Presented by Northwestern Mutual], those backs are really good. Alabama is going to have to stay in the gaps, because it’s not like you’re going to run these guys down. Normally, Alabama is so fast that they don’t give up explosive run plays.”

Of course, Georgia needs explosive run plays to survive, having run for 20 or more yards six times against Oklahoma (four of which went for touchdowns).

However, the Crimson Tide slowed down QB Kelly Bryant and the Clemson offense in the Sugar Bowl, so it’ll be interesting to see what gives on Monday night.