Greg McElroy gives 0% chance for Dabo Swinney, Lane Kiffin to land Alabama job

Several significant hats are going to be in the ring when it comes to Alabama’s coaching search following the retirement of Nick Saban. However, with one name already officially off the board, Greg McElroy has scratched off two other names.

McElroy assessed the odds for a handful of names that could be in consideration in Tuscaloosa during ‘McElroy and Cubelic In The Morning’ on Thursday. Of all the names that they went over, he went ahead and gave it a 0% chance that either Clemson’s Dabo Swinney or Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin would get the job.

“Zero-percent chance,” said McEloy on Swinney’s odds.

“Zero-percent chance,” McEloy said again when it came to Kiffin’s probability.

For what it’s worth, McElroy also had the chances on Dan Lanning as “much, much lower” than the fanbase may have believed them to be. That ended up being the case with Lanning’s announcement this morning that he’d be remaining in Eugene.

McElroy also gave a 1% chance to Colorado’s Deion Sanders. Meanwhile, his best likelihood went to Washington’s Kalen DeBoer at 25%. As he continued, he threw in a name like a Chris Klieman at Kansas State too as an idea that some might consider as out of left field.

Still, back to Swinney or Kiffin, both could be top targets considering their background, including with the school.

For Swinney, he played at Alabama from 1989 to 1992. He then was a graduate assistant for the Crimson Tide from 1993 to 2000 before heading to Clemson. That’s where he has remained until this day where, as the Tiger’s head coach, he has a record of 170-43. That stretch includes 15 straight double-digit win seasons.

In the postseason, Swinney has won eight ACC Championships. He has also gone to the College Football Playoff six times, second only to Alabama. He has gone 6-4 in playoff games with two national titles to show for four appearances in the final game. Both of those championships came against Saban and the Crimson Tide in 2017 and 2019.

As for Kiffin, he has bounced around several programs over the last decade and a half. One stop was two years under Saban as Alabama’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2014 to 2016.

Kiffin has since ended up back in the SEC at Ole Miss where he currently has the Rebels rolling. That includes a 34-15 record in Oxford with eight or more wins in each of the last three years and two seasons with double-digit victories. There’s also plenty of recruiting momentum to show for it heading into 2024.

Still, according to McElroy, neither has a very good shot at becoming the next man roaming the sidelines at Alabama. That’s coming from the guy who also joked that his name may very well be in the mix too based on the odds that are floating around.

“It’s going to cost them – not as much as Lanning but it’s going to cost them,” McElroy laughed.