Will Alabama ever get another chance to snag Lane Kiffin?
By David Wasson
Published:
We live in a world of second chances.
Whether it be Michael Jordan’s return to the Bulls, George Foreman’s rise from grill pitchman back to the heavyweight championship or Tiger Woods’ recovery from personal woes and back issues to win the 2019 Masters, second chances are woven into our sports culture.
In the college football world. Lane Kiffin got a second chance after washing out at USC by way of becoming the inaugural recipient of the Nick Saban Redemption Scholarship. The Ole Miss coach spent a couple years soaking in wisdom in Tuscaloosa – along with receiving the occasional ass-chewing – before embarking back out into the head coaching wilderness.
Now, with Kalen DeBoer’s future as foggy as ever following a disastrous start to his second season with the Tide, is it time for Alabama to pull the trigger on the most karmic of second chances?
Is it time to bring back Lane Kiffin?
We know what you’re thinking. All of it. First, doesn’t Alabama already have a head coach? Yes, of course, DeBoer is only 1 game into his second season in Tuscaloosa – but the ice beneath his feet is thawing at a rapid pace after the Crimson Tide’s brutal road defeat at Florida State last weekend.
Not only has DeBoer spent this week actually doing his job trying to get his team better before this Saturday night’s home opener against UL-Monroe, he has also been trying to reassure boosters and really all of the Crimson Tide Nation that woe is not nearly as close as it appears.
But should Alabama go from bad to worse in the coming weeks, whether it be a cataclysmic loss to the Warhawks this week or merely an epic disaster by falling to Wisconsin the week after, DeBoer could very likely be called into AD Greg Byrne’s office for a very uncomfortable conversation.
Which brings us to the second chance question for Alabama. Is Kiffin the most logical alternative to replace DeBoer in Tuscaloosa – or did Alabama miss out on Kiffin for good when they tapped DeBoer to replace Saban in January 2024?
That could be even stickier. Outside of Byrne and Kiffin, few if any know for certain whether Kiffin was legitimately pursued as a Saban successor in the 48 hours between when Saban stunningly announced his retirement and Byrne popped the question on DeBoer.
The Ole Miss coach and Twitter (er… X) super-user might have been approached via back channels to gauge his interest, but that might also have been quietly rebuffed after Kiffin received a fair bit of feedback flack after a reported dalliance with Auburn before the Tigers went with Hugh Freeze in 2023.
Whether Kiffin’s temperature was taken or not by Byrne and Alabama 18 months ago, times and situations change at all time. Kiffin has won 45 of his 63 games in Oxford and has recruits flocking to The Sip with an uber-clever recruiting brand, but he also can’t help but to feel like he is bumping his head on the proverbial ceiling.
Can Ole Miss really expect to contend for an SEC championship and deep College Football Playoff run based on the less than $9 million it reportedly has for NIL in The Grove Collective? For all the 10-win seasons under Kiffin so far, the Rebels likely can’t squeeze twice as much out of NIL donors like Alabama reportedly has done for the 2025 team.
In other words, Kiffin has done a superb job raising Ole Miss to the penultimate step in the pantheon of the SEC. But the distance between that step and the summit that Georgia, LSU, Tennessee and Alabama live on is massive – and likely no amount of pithy tweets and snarky Paul Finebaum Show appearances will make it any easier to climb.
Can Alabama navigate the mother of all second chances and lure Kiffin back to his adopted home (not to mention Joey Freshwater’s fabled stomping grounds)? Not only would it take the reported $70 million to buy out DeBoer, but drawing Kiffin from Ole Miss will also certainly take a pretty penny… Does that money exist in Alabama’s ecosphere?
And would Kiffin really want to try his hand at rebuilding Alabama from what it is starting to become to what it very recently has been? Is he up for that level of scrutiny – not to mention non-stop comparisons not only to Saban but to his own successes as Alabama’s former offensive coordinator?
Or did Alabama simply miss out on the coach that could have maintained Saban’s Process and added his own flair for the next 20 years – with no second chance to make it right ever materializing again?
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
