Lane Kiffin keeps finding himself at the center of the college football conversation, and the latest debate around him is as sharp as ever: is he good for the sport, bad for it, or simply impossible to ignore?
That question was front and center on the latest episode of AL.com’s Alabama football podcast, “Beat Everyone,” where host Ben Flanagan and columnist Kevin Scarbinsky dug into Kiffin’s polarizing place in the game. Scarbinsky didn’t soften his view.
“He’s bad for college football,” Scarbinsky said. “I have no doubt.
I have made no secret that I have no respect for Lane Kiffin. And I have a lot of different reasons for that, stretching back to even before he got to Alabama.
Certainly has something to do with why and when he left Alabama, not by choice, a week before a national championship game, unprecedented in the history of college football.”
That departure came days before the 2017 College Football Playoff final, when Alabama lost to Clemson with Steve Sarkisian stepping in as interim OC after Kiffin left for the head coaching job at Florida Atlantic.
The podcast also turned to Alabama’s present, starting with new QB1 Keelon Russell and his first test in the season opener against East Carolina. The Tide passed that one, but the next challenge comes fast: their first SEC game this weekend in Lexington. The discussion centered on what Alabama answered in Week 1, what still needs to be proven on the road against Kentucky, and whether Kalen DeBoer and the Tide can really win it all this year.
From there, the conversation shifted back to Kiffin and his complicated connection to Alabama. The question isn’t whether he mattered in Tuscaloosa - he absolutely did.
He won three SEC championships and one national title with the Tide, coached Derrick Henry to a Heisman Trophy, and had another finalist in Amari Cooper. He also helped Nick Saban and Alabama adjust to modern college football.
Still, his legacy there comes with baggage. Plenty of Alabama fans appreciated what he brought to the program, and some even wanted him to eventually succeed Saban.
Others never got past the way he left. And while Alabama fans may not welcome him back as the Crimson Tide head coach, there’s a sense that the reaction to him in Tuscaloosa is less venomous than it is in other places.
Scarbinsky pointed to one major reason.
“One big difference is he wasn’t the head coach,” Scarbinsky said. “And you had an adult in charge, who for the most part kept him under control. So that’s why the depth of feeling, pro and or con, towards Lane Kiffin is not as strong in Tuscaloosa as it might be other places because he didn’t build up expectations and hopes and then just leave everybody flat.”
He also said Kiffin’s time under Saban changed the trajectory of his career. “He was going to go through the Saban car wash.
He was going to be sanitized as a result,” he said. “That was going to allow a Group of Six school like Florida Atlantic to hire him after he kept his nose mostly clean, for three years under Nick Saban’s tutelage.”
Even with that Alabama chapter in the past, Scarbinsky isn’t ready to forgive what came later. He sees Kiffin’s Ole Miss exit as a deal-breaker.
“You walked out on a team on the cusp of the playoff. That is unconscionable to me,” Scarbinsky said.
“Walking out on your team before the season’s over, when you have a chance to win a championship, to go somewhere else because you think you have a better chance to win a championship, that does not compute in my competitive brain. So I would never ever forgive the man.
“If that were his only transgression, and it is not, I don’t know that I could ever forgive him for that.”
Saban, for his part, has taken a different tone. Kiffin has spoken glowingly about his former boss and called him a mentor during his move to Baton Rouge, and Saban said during a Week 1 appearance on ESPN’s “College GameDay” that he is proud of him.
So where does that leave Kiffin in Tuscaloosa? Not exactly as a villain, not exactly as a hero, but still a name that gets attention every time it comes up. Alabama fans may boo him now that he’s LSU’s coach, but they also know exactly what he meant to the program - and exactly how the story ended.
In Other News...
Nick Sabans Alabama Start Came With A Backstory Fans Rarely Hear
Before Nick Saban became the defining coach of the Alabama era, ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum says there was a business side to his life that rarely gets much attention. Finebaum described Saban as having gone beyond football into a mix of investments and ownership, including several Mercedes-Benz dealerships and a piece of a boutique hotel, a reminder that his rise in Tuscaloosa came with more than just a coaching reputation attached to it.
Finebaum also raised a different layer to Sabans early Alabama story, one tied to the financial pressures and coaching rumors that floated around the time of his arrival in 2007. He suggested Sabans situation was shaped by past losses and by discussions about other jobs, including Texas, a version of events Saban has consistently denied. It is the kind of backstory that has long lingered around one of college footballs most scrutinized hires, even if the man at the center of it has never embraced that telling. [Read more 🡒]
Kentucky Can Push Alabama But One Doubt Still Looms
Alabamas trip to Kentucky has enough intrigue to make this one worth watching beyond the usual SEC backdrop. College football analyst David Pollack pointed to the Wildcats strong offensive line and the way the quarterback has played as reasons they could hang around with the No. 12 Crimson Tide, a combination that gives Kentucky a real chance to make the game uncomfortable for Alabama.
The bigger question, though, is whether that translates into something more than a competitive afternoon. Pollack still leaned toward Alabama, with the Tides depth standing out as the separator against a Kentucky defense that has not inspired the same confidence, leaving the game in that familiar spot where one side looks capable of making it close while the other still feels built to finish it off. [Read more 🡒]
Alabama Faces Its First Real Test Against A Kentucky Team To Watch
Week 2 brings the first real measuring-stick game of the season for Alabama, and Kentucky is the sort of opponent that can tell us a lot before league play settles in. The Wildcats are on the radar not just because of the stage, but because they opened with a polished performance and have the kind of defense and quarterback play that can make a ranked team work for everything.
For Alabama, this is less about hype than about answering early questions in a game where both teams have something to prove. The Crimson Tide are still sorting out what their new-look offense can be under pressure, while Kentucky arrives with enough momentum to make this one feel bigger than a routine early-September tune-up. If the Tide want to separate themselves from the rest of the playoff conversation, this is the kind of test that has to look comfortable before it can look convincing. [Read more 🡒]