Lane Kiffin hilariously reacts to Nick Saban showing off personality on TV, commercials

Lane Kiffin has seen a different side of Nick Saban, like the rest of the college football world, since his retirement from coaching.

Evidently, it’s shocked Kiffin to see Saban joking around and having fun on ESPN College GameDay and during various commercial appearances. So much so, the Ole Miss leader made a point to let Saban know during an appearance on the aforementioned ESPN pregame show on Saturday morning.

Lane Kiffin busts up the College GameDay crew after Desmond Howard asks him about America seeing Nick Saban's humorous side.

"I love Coach, but I never saw that side." pic.twitter.com/ELTgc6Upbm

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 28, 2024

“I love Coach, but I never saw that side,” Kiffin joked. “I actually saw a commercial. I paused it, replayed it, videoed it with my phone — I sent it to Kirby [Smart], sent it to Sark (Steve Sarkisian) and all these guys and I was like, ‘Who is this guy man? This guy is awesome. Making jokes.’ I mean, one of them you’ve got to go rent a place and you’ve got to live with him there, that’s awesome.”

Perhaps Saban should’ve shown more of his softer, more comedic side while Kiffin was his offensive coordinator at Alabama. Still, it’s tough to argue with the way Saban operated, with all the success he had in Tuscaloosa over the years.

Alas, Lane Kiffin got some chuckles out of Nick Saban throughout their time together with Alabama, but nothing like what we’ve seen Kirk Herbstreit and the College GameDay receive. Predictably, the former Crimson Tide leader has been killing it in the media world, and that’s likely not going to change anytime soon.

Lane Kiffin admits he doesn’t think Ole Miss’ opponents have prepared Rebels for SEC play

Through four games, Ole Miss has looked nothing short of dominant. The Rebels bring plenty of momentum into the SEC portion of the schedule, winning by a combined score of 220-22 en route to a 4-0 record.

To Lane Kiffin, though, Ole Miss’ opponents haven’t really prepared the Rebels for conference play. Instead, he’s hoping the performance in practice will pay off.

Ole Miss added talent in the trenches on both sides of the ball this offseason, which is why the Rebels are generating some College Football Playoff buzz. That influx is a reason why Kiffin said practice could help prepare his team for conference play more than the schedule.

“I’m a realist,” Kiffin said. “I don’t think our opponents have really prepared us for the SEC play. My hope is our practice and our fall camp has prepared us because we play against really good players on both sides of the ball. Defensively, we play against really big linemen. Same on the other way around.

“The schedule, it is what it is. I hope that our practice has because our practice is similar to what we face.”

Ole Miss’ strength of schedule ranks 125th out of 134 FBS programs entering Saturday’s game against Kentucky, according to ESPN. The only Power Four matchup came against Wake Forest – a 40-6 Rebels win – and the four opponents have a combined 5-10 record. As SEC play begins, they’re now looking at the 25th-hardest remaining schedule in the nation.

On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this article.