Nick Saban praises impact Lane Kiffin had at Alabama, calls him a good head coach

Lane Kiffin spent a couple of seasons working under Nick Saban as Alabama’s offensive coordinator.

He revolutionized the Tide on that side of the ball, and is now a head coach again. After a stint at Florida Atlantic, Kiffin is in his second year at Ole Miss and will return to Tuscaloosa to take on his old team on Saturday afternoon.

During the SEC coaches teleconference on Wednesday, Saban had plenty of praise for his former assistant. He said Kiffin did his job well during his time in Tuscaloosa:

“Lane did an outstanding job for us here,” Saban said. “We were happy to get him on the staff. … Definitely helped us adapt to the players we had and becoming more of an open type of offense. Probably the structure we had here was a little different than what he’d had in the past. He did what he was asked to do. … I guess you’d have to ask him if he learned anything while he was here. … I thought he’d be a head coach again and do a really good job when he got that opportunity, and that’s certainly been the case.”

Is Kiffin in a spot where he could become the first former Saban assistant to beat him? Saban is currently 23-0 against his former assistants.

We’ll see if that changes at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday on CBS.

Adam Spencer

Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 14 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.