Nick Saban rips Alabama after Lane Kiffin LSU advice revealed

Nick Saban rips Alabama after Lane Kiffin LSU advice revealed originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

When Lane Kiffin made his decision to leave Ole Miss for LSU, there was one person he leaned on for guidance. None other than coaching great Nick Saban, who was his former boss at Alabama and had a deep relationship with father, Monte. 

The world found out he was jumping from Oxford to Baton Rouge, but not much was known publicly about what Saban told Kiffin. The two had kept it under wraps until now. 

The new Tigers coach recently opened up about the process going on behind-the-scenes, and it came with Saban taking a shot at the school he built into a legendary powerhouse. 

"You'll always regret, if you don't go to LSU. It's the best job in America," Kiffin recalled via WAFB's Jacques Doucet. "When he said that, that really made the decision for me."

"You'll always regret, if you don't go to LSU. It's the best job in America."

Nick Saban to @Lane_Kiffin during #LSU effort to land Kiffin as the new @LSUfootball head coach.

"When he said that, that really made the decision for me." @WAFBpic.twitter.com/Oo6VxzwY1F

— Jacques Doucet (@JacquesDoucet) January 20, 2026

Saban has been gone from Alabama for nearly two years and still doesn't believe it is the "best" in college football. That says a lot about the shape of the program after his retirement. We'll see if LSU is truly Kiffin's dream job or the next stop on his resume. But he's trying to make it the best school in the SEC. 

Kiffin signed a 7-year, $91 million contract with incentives to make a splash at LSU. 

More:Deion Sanders would reportedly leave Colorado for one NFL coaching job

With Alabama taking a slide under Kalen DeBoer, they're no longer the "top dog" in the conference. Kiffin can push the Tigers to an elite level, but he'll have to compete with emerging programs from other conferences. The national championship game put one thing on display to the world. The SEC hasn't had a champion in four years with the Big Ten rotating three programs into the mix. 

More: Demond Williams bombshell could have resulted in Lane Kiffin being fired by LSU

Kiffin has his work cut out for him right after hitting the ground. We'll see if Saban's advice pays off just like it did for Curt Cignetti at Indiana.

More college football news: 

• SNL pokes fun at Michael Irvin's amped up Miami Hurricanes fandom
• Miami hasn’t beaten a No. 1 team in 26 years— Indiana stands in the way
• Here's how much Miami is paying its 2025 roster for College Football Playoff run
• Carson Beck shares honest reaction to 'Vanilla Vick' nickname
• Ex-Indiana QB fires back after portrayal in CBS 60 Minutes interview