Three years ago, Alabama was struggling to put up points with first-year offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin.

In his fifth game with the Tide, Kiffin was blasted by former players (and probably Nick Saban) after Alabama’s offense was held to 17 points in a loss to Ole Miss.

The following week, Kiffin’s offense was again stuck in the mud in the fourth quarter against an Arkansas team that eventually finished 2-6 in the SEC. To that point, the Tide had fewer than 200 yards of total offense after gaining less than 2 yards per carry. With Alabama trying to put the game away on 4th-and-1, quarterback Blake Sims was stymied on a disastrous QB sneak attempt.

That led to this memorable exchange.

Ahhhh … memories.

Saban gave Kiffin the death stare, as did probably every Alabama fan. That wasn’t the last time we saw the death stare shot at Kiffin. That was, however, the last time that Alabama failed to score 20 points in consecutive games.

Kiffin made up for his mistake the following week by engineering a 59-0 win against No. 21 Texas A&M. He then, of course, fueled Alabama’s national championship season the following year in 2015 and helped get the Tide back to the title game in 2016 before leaving for Florida Atlantic (though not on his own terms).

In a couple short weeks, Kiffin’s successor will try and avoid the same mistake he made in 2014. All eyes will be on Brian Daboll in the Sugar Bowl. The first-year Alabama offensive coordinator will get a chance to redeem himself after his offense was limited to 14 points in the Iron Bowl. He’ll be tasked with out-scheming a Clemson defense that ranks second in America in points allowed.

There’s more bad news for Daboll. Unlike Kiffin, he won’t have another game the next week if Alabama delivers its second consecutive subpar offensive performance.

The big question would be if Daboll would even get another game next season.

Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

For most programs (maybe all programs), the idea of firing an offensive coordinator who led an offense that averaged 39 points is preposterous. In fact, nearly all 11 of the offensive masterminds ahead of Alabama’s No. 12 scoring offense got either a raise or a promotion. To think that Daboll would get axed after just one season on the job might seem crazy.

But when you really think about it, is it?

If Alabama does have a similar offensive performance to the Iron Bowl, that would mark disappointing performances in the two biggest games of the year against arguably its two biggest modern rivals to end the season. Timing is everything, and timing certainly wouldn’t be on Daboll’s side.

Keep in mind that Daboll will have had more than 5 weeks to adjust after Alabama’s offense was held in check in the Iron Bowl loss. Giving Damien Harris and Bo Scarbrough just 6 carries apiece didn’t make sense, nor would it make sense in the Sugar Bowl. Clearly, Alabama relied too heavily on Jalen Hurts to move the chains.

Can you picture how ugly it would get if that same narrative unfolded against Clemson? It would confirm all of those theories about how badly Alabama needed Kiffin to win a national title.

Even Kiffin knows that!

https://twitter.com/Lane_Kiffin/status/939172903442100224

It’s interesting to think about Kiffin’s departure from Alabama last year. After he agreed to become the next coach at FAU, he coached in the Playoff semifinal against Washington, wherein the Alabama offense was held to just 17 points in the victory (the Tide returned an interception for a touchdown). Saban basically told Kiffin to move on after that game despite the fact that to that point Alabama averaged — wait for it — 39 points.

Daboll was never expected to be Kiffin’s replacement. Many assumed that Steve Sarkisian would fill that role. That obviously didn’t happen because he took the job as the offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons. Ironically enough, Daboll came from the team that beat the Falcons in the Super Bowl.

It didn’t seem to matter that Daboll was only the Patriots tight ends coach (can anyone really screw up Rob Gronkowski?) and that he hadn’t been a coordinator since 2012. It wasn’t a concern that in his 5 seasons as a coordinator, Daboll’s offenses never ranked better than 20th. Who cared if Bill Belichick never made him a coordinator?

All the mattered was that Daboll was a “Belichick guy.”

In the same way that being a “Saban guy” reaped tremendous rewards for assistant coaches across the country, being a “Belichick guy” gave Daboll the boost he needed to get a job unlike any he had before.

Saban didn’t ask Daboll to reinvent the wheel. All Saban wanted was a low-profile coach who could run Kiffin’s offense without Kiffin’s shenanigans.

To a certain extent, Daboll has done that. Despite the questionable skill-player usage at certain points, the Tide’s offensive numbers are pretty similar to last year. Alabama is one win away from making a national championship in the first year of the post-Kiffin era. Another victory and this conversation is water under the bridge.

But another offensive dud and Daboll will hope that all he gets is a death stare.