Lane Kiffin shares the most angry he ever made Nick Saban

Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban go way back.

Kiffin, currently the head coach at Ole Miss, has the Rebels off to the Sugar Bowl, where they’ll face the No. 6 Baylor Bears. Kiffin helped lead Ole Miss to its first 10-win regular-season performance in program history, and the Rebels could make it 11 on New Years Day — but long before his arrival at Ole Miss, Kiffin worked for Saban at Alabama.

Following his four-year stint as USC’s head football coach, Kiffin in 2014 was hired by Saban at Alabama as the offensive coordinator. He coached Alabama’s offense for three seasons before returning to the head coaching ranks at FAU in 2017, and later Ole Miss in 2020. Kiffin frequently shares some of his favorite Saban stories or Saban-isms, but in a recent story he shared on The Rich Eisen Show, Kiffin relived a viral memory from 2016 — the moment he made Saban the maddest in his Alabama career.

Saban gives Kiffin an ‘ass-chewing’ during Alabama victory

Alabama was well on its way to a win over Western Kentucky. The game was completely out of reach for the Hilltoppers, who trailed the No. 1 Crimson Tide 38-3, but one of Kiffin’s late-game play calls resulted in a fumble. Western Kentucky scored on the very next drive, and Kiffin lost it at Saban; the whole exchange was caught on television.

“Well, one of them is documented on film,” Kiffin said, when asked which moment was the most angry he’s made Saban. “It was the end of the game, and everybody thinks because we had a turnover at the end of the game, when the ball hit the receiver in motion and he lost his mind on me — but really, it was not at that play. It was actually when they scored, that next series, when the defense gave up a touchdown. That’s when I got yelled at; not actually when the ball hit the receiver and we turned it over.

:It was when the defense got scored on, that’s when he lost his mind on me. He called it an ‘ass-chewing,’ I guess is what he referred to it as in the press conference.”

Kiffin was a finalist for the Broyles Award, given annually to the nation’s top assistant, while with the Alabama Crimson Tide. But on this day — despite a comfortable, double-digit win — Saban made him seem like anything but a top assistant.