Paul Finebaum Believes Lane Kiffin Would Have 'Crawled' to Alabama After Nick Saban

In a move that remains the hottest topic across college football, Lane Kiffin made the decision to depart the Ole Miss Rebels in November to become the next head coach of the LSU Tigers.

Despite the Ole Miss program in the midst of a historic season in Oxford while punching a ticket to the College Football Playoff, Kiffin elected to depart the Magnolia State for LSU.

It's immediately become "College Football Playoffs or bust" expectations for the ex-Rebels signal-caller, but he's pumping the brakes on the outside chatter.

"I think expectations can be really scary. So we don't really look at it that way. We don't have goals and say, 'Okay, we need to have this many wins or playoffs.' We don't talk that way because that's really outcome-based, not process-based," Kiffin said last week.

"It's much more about the day-to-day process and always trying to find a way to improve our players, coach better and get them to the highest level. We don't really talk with numbers that way because I think you get yourself stuck a little bit, especially in a system now that part of is out of your control, whether you're in the playoffs or not."

Kiffin has made his move. It's all purple and gold for the former Ole Miss head coach, but SEC Network's Paul Finebaum believes things could have gone differently.

Ole Miss Rebels Football: Lane Kiffin. — Courtesy of Ole Miss Rebels Football.

Finebaum revealed this week that he believes Kiffin "would have crawled" to Tuscaloosa to become the next shot-caller of the Alabama Crimson Tide following Nick Saban's retirement.

“Dan Lanning was (the favorite) within 10 seconds of Nick Saban’s retirement announcement,” Finebaum said on his show on Wednesday. “Dan Lanning was the betting favorite. By the next day, he was out of it because Dan landing didn’t want the job. The guy that did want the job was Lane Kiffin.

“He would have crawled to Tuscaloosa, but Greg Byrne and others — I’m guessing Sabin was probably behind this as well. I guarantee that Nick Saban did not encourage Greg Byrne to hire Lane Kiffin at Alabama.”

“I can absolutely confirm that Lane Kiffin was calling everyone imaginable to get him in the door,” Finebaum added. “Absolute fact.”

It's another interesting twist in the Kiffin saga, but as the offseason continues, the ex-Ole Miss decision-maker remains the hottest topic of conversation with all eyes on what he pieces together in Year 1 with the LSU Tigers.

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Follow Zack Nagy on Twitter: @znagy20 and Ole Miss Rebels On SI: @OleMissOnSI for all coverage surrounding the Ole Miss program.