Alabama announced the surprising news on Monday that Lane Kiffin would not serve as offensive coordinator for the Crimson Tide during the National Championship Game and instead Steve Sarkisian will take his spot.
No specific reason(s) was given for the oddly timed exit, but there is some speculation and information about what led to the dismissal.
ESPN’s Brett McMurphy says that Kiffin being late to meetings, being left behind at media day, and his public comments about being chewed out contributed to the move.
Late to meetings, getting left behind at media day, public “ass-chewing” comments contributed to Lane Kiffin’s exit, sources told @ESPN
— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) January 2, 2017
Those are factors reported by McMurphy, but there were probably more reasons than that.
It’s our personal speculation that a few other things contributed to the decision.
One, Kiffin’s playcalling in the playoff game against Washington on Saturday was questionable. It was clear to nearly everyone watching that running back Bo Scarbrough, who finished with 180 yards and two touchdowns, was unstoppable. Yet Kiffin only gave him 19 carries.
On top of his questionable playcalling in the semifinal game, Kiffin finally had a chance to really have his voice heard in a featured story published by Sports Illustrated last week. Rather than strictly focus on how grateful he was for his chance at Alabama and his next opportunity at Florida Atlantic, Kiffin trashed Alabama a few times.
Take a look at this section of the article in which Kiffin complains about early daily meetings and compares being in Alabama to living in dog years.
Kiffin doesn’t pretend that he enjoyed every moment working at Alabama, as he mentions daily 7:30 a.m. staff meetings like he was forced to drink sour milk. He felt isolated in Tuscaloosa; his family didn’t move there, and his profile didn’t allow him to go anywhere socially. “This will come across wrong,” he says. “But it’s like dog years. Three years is like 21.”
He also pointed out how at Alabama they have psychologists who evaluate and identify personality types on the coaching staff in order to help staff members work together the best. Kiffin said he was labeled a conceptual thinker and seemed to boast about how much of a visionary he is, compared to the rest of the Tide’s coaches, who are boring, structural guys. It was just another way of showing how he doesn’t fit in.
Rather than just keep quiet and remain grateful, you get the sense that Kiffin, who was mostly shielded from the media during his three years at Alabama, finally got a chance to speak his mind again and let out with everything he’s kept bottled up for years. That probably accelerated his exit from Tuscaloosa. And now he has left yet another job in controversial fashion, confirming why Houston did not hire him for their job.
