Did Nick Saban Push Lane Kiffin to Leave Ole Miss for the LSU Job?

Lane Kiffin said Nick Saban's remarks to him played the decisive role in his leaving Ole Miss for LSU, but what does the former Bama coach have to say about that?

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Shortly after Lane Kiffin made college football’s biggest coaching move of the year by leaving Ole Miss for LSU, he said that Nick Saban played a major role in that decision.

But is that actually true? By what Saban says, there’s a little more context to that story.

What Saban said about Lane’s decision

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Saban acknowledged that he sometimes offers professional advice to coaches he has worked with, and that includes Kiffin. What did that conversation look like?

“Well you know, I have coaches call me all the time and ask for advice about what they should do, and typically, what I do is ask them questions: Where do you think you can win? Where do you think you fit?” Saban said on College GameDay.

He added: “And I also say, ‘Why can’t you win at where you are now? You have a great quarterback. You have a great running back. You’re in the playoffs. You have a chance to win the national championship. So why do you have to go someplace else? So, but everybody makes their own decision. I don’t tell anybody where to go.”

What Lane said about Saban’s input

To hear what Kiffin said about Saban’s contribution to his decision to take the LSU gig, it sounds like the latter played the critical role in what happened.

Speaking at The Leadership Power Breakfast earlier this year, the new LSU head coach said that what his former boss told him is what pushed him over the line.

“I told the story at the press conference, but I was torn. And when I called Coach Saban and talked it through with him, he said, ‘You know, Lane, you’ll always regret if you don’t go to LSU. It’s the best job in America,’” Kiffin said, according to WAFB’s Jacques Doucet.

"You'll always regret, if you don't go to LSU. It's the best job in America."

Nick Saban to @Lane_Kiffin during #LSU effort to land Kiffin as the new @LSUfootball head coach.

"When he said that, that really made the decision for me." @WAFB pic.twitter.com/Oo6VxzwY1F

— Jacques Doucet (@JacquesDoucet) January 20, 2026

Kiffin added: “And when [Saban] said that, it really made the decision for me. And as I’ve looked at it, it has pushed me, it has gotten me out of a comfort zone. That we were doing amazing things [at Ole Miss], but you come here and you feel the power of the place, and it drives you every day to go to another level.”

Kiffin and LSU will certainly be out of their comfort zone on Saturday night, when he and the Tigers return to Ole Miss to play in the game of the week under the lights.

It marks the first time that LSU and Ole Miss meet on the same field with both ranked in the AP top-ten since 1962, could spell either vindication or humiliation for Kiffin, and just might play a role in who the SEC puts, and doesn’t put, in the College Football Playoff down the line. No pressure...