Lane Kiffin explains why he thought Travaris Robinson was calling plays on Alabama defense

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin grabbed some headlines on Sunday ahead of his matchup versus Alabama this upcoming Saturday.

OM Spirit’s Ben Garrett reported that Kiffin believes the Crimson Tide have made a change to who has the playcalling duties for Alabama’s defense. Alabama hired veteran coach Kevin Steele as their defensive coordinator this offseason, but after watching film Kiffin believes that cornerbacks coach Travaris Robinson is the one actually calling the plays.

Kiffin explained his thought process regarding Alabama’s defensive playcalling on Monday, but first cleared the air on the origin of his comments.

“Again I was asked the question what was it like going against Steele’s defense, so I wasn’t really trying to start this big thing,” Kiffin said.

“We saw things on TV copy just where it was different of first off what the play looked like, the calls and stuff, so we looked into that further. It ain’t no secret, people in these buildings know each other so obviously got some information that way too.”

Steele’s collegiate coaching career dates back over 40 years, and Kiffin is more than familiar with his work. The two worked together previously at Alabama and Kiffin has gone against him as well during Steele’s tenure with Auburn and LSU. And based on what he knows, he believes that Alabama’s defense as of late doesn’t represent his style.

Instead, he believes Travaris Robinson is calling the plays and that Alabama’s defense resembles Robinson’s during his tenure as South Carolina‘s defensive coordinator versus Steele’s, and is preparing his team accordingly.

“It is what it is, it’s kind of like the quarterbacks, you gotta prepare for a different quarterback or for a different playcaller,” Kiffin said. “You got a game film of that, I’m not sure whatever transpired after Texas, but we’re gonna have our hands full no matter what.”

Alabama head coach Nick Saban said Monday that Steele has all the defensive coordinator responsibilities for the team, and also revealed that quarterback Jalen Milroe would be the starter for Saturday’s matchup.

Milroe started the first two games of the season for the Crimson Tide, but not the third, as both Tyler Buchner and Ty Simpson were featured and struggled in Alabama’s surprisingly close 17-3 win over USF in Week 3.

There’s no question that there’s plenty of familiarity between Ole Miss and Alabama as they’ll square off in their first conference game of the season. And it will be especially interesting to see how Kiffin’s offensive scheme plans on attacking Alabama’s defense.