Lane Kiffin details Nick Saban’s approach to decision-making, impact on his career

Lane Kiffin is one of the few people who have worked at the last two college football dynasties. He was in Los Angeles with USC to coach under Pete Carroll and over a decade later, Nick Saban revived his career to be Alabama‘s offensive coordinator. Two success programs but with different styles of operating.

One thing Kiffin learned while in Tuscaloosa was the process of slower decision-making. Carroll wanted to move quickly and be swift with decisions, while Saban made sure to think everything out. In what might be unusual for Saban considering his personality, Kiffin explained how Saban made his decisions.

“He would take time to make decisions,” Kiffin said. “A lot of time. Which was really new for me. I was not really that way, Coach (Pete) Carroll was not that way… [Saban] was going to go sleep on it, take some time, talk to five more people about it. Just a different way of being around decision-making. I don’t think a lot of people know that. Because he doesn’t seem like that at times. Really good at that, really patient.”

Patience may seem to be short at times with Saban, mainly in-game. He was famous for going after players or coaches who made wrong choices — likely those that were decisions made quite quickly due to the nature of the game.

Moments before Saban retired, he was going through having to hire a defensive coordinator. Kevin Steele announced his own retirement and Alabama was going to need somebody new to take over heading into the 2024 season. Had Saban remained with the program, his normal process likely would have unfolded.

Looking back at when Steele was hired by Alabama, the report dropped just around a month after Ole Miss announced the hiring of Pete Golding. Not too many schools would want to go a full month without a defensive coordinator, especially in the midst of an important recruiting month.

Kiffin has now seen two different approaches in his career and both have had an abundant amount of success. He’s taken those lessons and had success at FAU and now has Ole Miss trending in the right direction. Many are slating the Rebels to be a force in the College Football Playoff conversation this season.

Plenty of program-changing decisions are upcoming this season for Kiffin. Using what he’s learned in the past — whether from Carroll or Saban — is a luxury not many have.