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Lane Kiffin hilariously trolled Mike Locksley during ‘low point’ in former Alabama assistant’s career
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During last week’s ESPN College GameDay, Gene Wojciechowski had a story on Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s pattern of hiring maligned coaches before they get a second chance as a head coach.
Two of those coaches were Mike Locksley and Lane Kiffin and after the piece Wojciechowski joined the College GameDay Podcast to talk about the time Kiffin, himself no angel, trolled Locksley during his humbling low point of having a job taking children to the pool. Locksley had been the head coach at New Mexico from 2009-11, getting fired in 2011 after going 2-26.
He was the interim head coach at Maryland in 2015 before Saban gave him a lifeline like he’s done for Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian, Butch Jones and others. But there was that low moment for Locksley that was caught on video by Kiffin, although he couldn’t find it for Wojciechowski’s piece (via On3 Sports):
“We probably did five hours of shooting, and four minutes makes it,” Wojciechowski recalled. “Out of that, probably three minutes is actual sound from the coaches. So think about that for a moment. But one of the things that we weren’t able to put into the piece was at the time, Locksley had basically crashed at Lane Kiffin’s apartment, at this building. You know the layout of ‘Bama much better than I do, having gone there. But he mentioned an apartment building that overlooks the football facility. I don’t know where that is exactly, you probably would. Anyway, it was whatever floor it was, it was the 10th floor of this apartment building, or seventh floor, and Locksley was just basically, grabbed the couch and was just going to stay with Kiffin so he could save some money. He calls Kiffin as he’s walking the kids over to the pool and he’s like, ‘Lane, this is the absolute rock bottom for me.’ And Kiffin goes, ‘Yeah, I know, I’m watching you. I’m watching you from the apartment.’ He’s laughing at Locksley. He’s taking video of Locksley walking the kids over, and we begged Lane can you please find that video so we could use it in the story. He looked, he really tried to find it.”
Locksley survived that time in his life, had a good run in Tuscaloosa — helping the Crimson Tide win the national title in 2017 — and has been the head coach at Maryland since 2019. Locksley served under Saban from 2016-18. He started as an offensive analyst for the Tide before being promoted to offensive coordinator for the 2018 season and capturing the Broyles Award as the nation’s top college football assistant.
He’s a long way away now from that day at the pool, with Kiffin taking it all in. Here’s the full segment from the College GameDay Podcast:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
