Lane Kiffin on Why Nick Saban is the Best Coach in College Football History
It just wouldn't be SEC Media Days without Lane Kiffin making a comment about Nick Saban and his time as an Alabama Crimson Tide assistant coach.
But this time the Ole Miss head coach explained why he thinks his former boss is the greatest coach in college football history:
“Well, I'm extremely grateful to Coach Saban and our time together and most importantly for him giving me an opportunity to learn from him, and I mean he's the best to ever do it," he said on Thursday morning. "I've said it before, I really do believe he is the best coach to ever do it because you guys know when you kind of I take in all the information and look at it, instead of just like, ‘OK a record,’ he's done it at a time of scholarship limitations where some of those older coaches didn't have them.
“I mean what if Nick Saban didn't have an 85 [limit]? “What would his roster look like if he had 150 scholarships to give? And also he's done what I don't think anybody did over time, continually, with so much staff turnover. You know so many so many people are hired off of his staff other places are to be head coaches, and you know it's kind of like, ‘Man all these first round picks,’ and he loses these coordinators.
“That's why we have [Paul] Finebaum so he can motivate him every other year and says, ‘Oh his dynasty is over,’ and ‘You know this is the end of Saban,’ and then we're like ‘Hey thanks a lot for pissing him off.’ Paul's always wrong on this subject and he just did it again the other day. ‘You know he doesn't make the playoff,’ ‘You know is you know he's not even good as a coach.’ So thanks Paul.”
On Pete Golding
In case you missed it, Saban finally talked a little about why defensive coordinator Pete Golding left Alabama for Ole Miss after last season:
“Look, everybody needs to make their personal choices and decisions about where they think can best develop their career," Saban told reporters Wednesday. "Pete did a great job for us. I like Pete. He improved every year with us in terms of how he did his job, which I was always pleased with. He chose for personal reasons, or whatever reasons, that it was a better opportunity to go someplace else. That's his prerogative, and we wish him well."
On Thursday, the talk was all positive from the Ole Miss side about the difference he's already making in Oxford.
"We are really excited about that change and what he brings, to bring him over from Alabama," Kiffin said. "I've known Pete and people that worked with him a long time. He's ahead of the game, very intelligent and great recruiter, as well."
Although defensive lineman Cedric Johnson missed the spring, he's liking their relationship so far.
"Pete, I like him a lot," Jonson said. "He's funny. If you didn't know, he's a pretty funny guy. I really like him, how particular in detail he is in the defense. But he doesn't stray away from at the end of the day we just playing ball, play the game you love, play hard, play fast, play physical. That will take care of the majority of our problems, take care of the majority of things. That's the main thing.
"My role, I feel like I'm going to be moving a lot more, might be dropping back some, coming off the edge like I usually do. It's going to be a lot more fun for me, just the D-line in general."
This story will be updated after Tennessee's turn at SEC Media Days in completed.
