Mighty Alabama Roars as Nick Saban Shows Why He's Still King of the Jungle

Lane Kiffin may be a great offensive innovator, but his Ole Miss team got dominated by the coach who continues to adapt better than anyone in college football.

He dared Alabama. He taunted Nick Saban in his own way. He even looked into the television camera during the pregame interview just before kickoff and told everyone to get out their popcorn. 

You know how burned popcorn smells? That horrible, awful, pungent odor that lasts for hours and makes everyone want to leave? 

That's Lane Kiffin after his return to Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday.  

His No. 12 Ole Miss team not only went down in flames, but did so in a way that made it impossible for the rest of college football not to see the overpowering smoke.

That's what No. 1 Alabama did, completely overpower the Rebels, 42-21. Although Kiffin is known as an amazing offensive innovator, it doesn't really matter what he calls if his lines are getting dominated. 

"We got dominated up front," Kiffin said. "That ain't hard to see."

The Crimson Tide did so on both sides of the ball. 

Kiffin talked about the talent difference between the teams all week, continually mentioning that the new transfer rules only helped Alabama fill a couple of key spots off of last season's national championship. It turned out he was understating things as the Crimson Tide both quieted and humbled the Rebels. 

The opening possessions reflected the contrast as both teams aimed to dictate the tempo. With a go-for-broke attitude, Ole Miss went for it on fourth down three times during their opening possession, the third attempt finally failing.

Starting at its own 6, Alabama rolled up its sleeves, brought in an extra offensive lineman against the Ole Miss 3-2-6 base defense, and started grinding. Running back Brian Robinson Jr. took the first of 36 handoffs that would lead to 171 rushing yards and four touchdowns. 

"I started to feel like the old classic Alabama pound, pound the football," he said. "I've never had over 30 carries in all the time I've played football." 

That was planned, although the Crimson Tide (4-0, 2-0 SEC) did want the game to be primarily played in the trenches where it felt it had its greatest advantage. The run-pass selection leaned a different way due to the circumstances, with Alabama basically saying stop us if you can. The Rebels simply didn't have the physical ability. 

Some 13 plays, 94 yards later, Alabama reached the end zone and it was already obvious which team was going to end up victorious. 

Kiffin ended up going for it twice more on fourth down, only to be stymied both times, and contributing to Alabama's 28-0 halftime lead. 

"A lot of people don't do it because it's like scared money," Kiffin said while explaining his reasoning. "When you're at the blackjack table with $5 it's easy. Put a couple of thousand out there and you get scared. 

"I said we weren't going to do that, we were going to follow the analytics, follow the book and not get scared because we're in Alabama, you know not have confidence in our players and punt. You can punt and they're still going to score." 

Ole Miss had started the day with the No. 1-ranked offense in the nation, averaging roughly 80 more yards per game than any other team (635.3, Ohio State second at 555.92), and was also first in scoring.

The Rebels (3-1, 0-1 SEC) had the advantage of being off last week, plus last year's 63-48 shootout, during which the losing team ran up and down the field for 647 total yards (compared to 723 for the Crimson Tide) was still on everyone's mind.  

However, the deck was stacked in Kiffin's favor that time. Not only was his new team playing at home, and Alabama was between high-profile showdowns against Texas A&M, it was like he he had the answer key to the exam. 

Having seen Alabama's defense every day in practice during his three seasons in Tuscaloosa (2014-16), Kiffin took notes. Some were mental and others went into a notebook, yet each time an opponent came up with a way to move the ball against Saban's defense he paid attention. 

Kiffin used all of them against the Crimson Tide.

Only defensive coordinator Pete Golding took notice as well. So did new offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien. They threw away that test and did the equivalent of an oral pop-quiz in front of 100,000-plus screaming people.

"We worked our tails off," defensive lineman Phidarian Mathis said about getting ready to face Kiffin's fastball offense again, which was pretty much the same as a year ago. 

What so many forgot was that even though Kiffin may have been the man Saban brought in to start Alabama's offensive evolution in 2014, it didn't end with him.

Mike Locksley added to it. Then Brian Daboll. Saban brought in the person who used to be Kiffin's offensive partner years ago at Southern California, Steve Sarkisian. Now O'Brien. 

Alabama's offense has continued to adjust, to evolve beyond Kiffin, and when clicking has become nearly unstoppable. That's the way it finished last year while running the table, and this group is now well on its way. 

Georgia, which has enjoyed back-to-back SEC shutouts, may have something to say about that eventually, and every team remaining on the regular-season schedule will try. 

Meanwhile, Kiffin became win No. 24 for Saban against former assistants, against zero losses. The great innovator got processed like the rest, while the man who adapts better than anyone showed who still rules college football.