Lane Kiffin Pokes Fun At Ezekiel Elliott During Cotton Bowl Presser

Kiffen, himself, sounds like he’s rarin’ to return.

“I wouldn’t go try to be him”, Kiffin said of Saban. HC Nick Saban’s been predictably mum on Kiffin’s status moving forward.

At 40, Kiffin has run the offense for two of the best coaches of this generation in Saban and Pete Carroll.

Next year, he’ll have to coach a third different starting quarterback in his three seasons, but he’ll do so as a different man, too. “So [I wanted] to see if we can go this year and finish like we should have last year and get him another championship”. “Not being the head coach and being the offensive coordinator affords me the time to do those things of evolving and changing”. “I compare them to a lot of the defensive lines we see in the SEC; big guys, all in the 300-pound range, play great with their hands, very explosive, what we’re used to seeing”, Kelly said. Barnett was also a graduate assistant coach on Saban’s LSU staff in 2003.

“I don’t think we grew [the program]”, Kiffin said of that offseason.

No doubt, but someone close to Kiffin estimated when Alabama hired him it likely would require three years of career rehab before the right AD would give him another shot as a head coach.

Case in point: Kiffin was in a joking mood Sunday during the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic media session, the first time he’s talked publicly with the media since August per Saban’s policy that assistant coaches don’t talk to the media. Yet some reporters, given a rare chance to speak to him, seemed more interested in Kiffin’s next position than his current post. After 14 months in Knoxville, he abruptly left to take the USC job, where he was sacked five games into the 2013 season. Alabama plays Michigan State on Thursday in the Cotton Bowl, a semifinal of the College Football Playoff. “If you were going to say you were going to work for Pete Carroll and Nick Saban before you’re even 40 years old as their coordinators on very successful teams, when you’re 25 years old, you’d take that in a second”.

He’s smart enough not to make the same mistakes next time, but for the moment and as long as possible, Alabama should appreciate him as much as he appears to appreciate Alabama.

Kiffin’s offense has relied more and more on Derrick Henry, the 2015 Heisman Trophy victor, over the second half of the season.

After last year’s successes began the reclamation of Kiffin’s reputation as an offensive guru, his phone started ringing again.

“I have a great job and anytime that there’s any thinking any different I just remind myself how many people would want to be the offensive coordinator for Nick Saban”. “They know how to deal with every single situation”.

“I think he’s gotten laid back, but I also think that all the other coaches have a better understanding of what he wants”, Coker said.