Nick Saban credits help from Lane Kiffin in dialing in Alabama offensive identity

Originally, Nick Saban’s early Alabama teams may have struggled at times because of their offense. While they were still borderline unbeatable, the Crimson Tide’s identity was built primarily on defense and running the football. 

However, things have changed in a big way since then. Now, the Crimson Tide also feature one of the nation’s most explosive offenses.

Prior to his 15th season in Tuscaloosa, Saban recounted when changes had to be made for his team’s offensive philosophy.

“I don’t know the year for sure, maybe 2015, but this new age of offense — with the spread and the RPOs [run-pass options] and lots of screens, throwing the ball behind the line of scrimmage, blocking downfield, taking advantage of the rules — made it much more difficult defensively,” said Saban, via the New York Times. “Even though we’ve never changed our philosophy of playing good defense, we also came to the realization that that wasn’t going to be the future.”

Saban recognized that if he didn’t change his ways, the game was going to pass him by. Continuing, the man who Saban credits with helping usher in his evolution? None other than Lane Kiffin.

‘Lane was a lot like me.’

When Kiffin was hired by Saban, it was met with mixed emotions. At the time, the current Ole Miss head coach was coming off a tumultuous tenure as the coach of the USC Trojans. 

Still, Saban believed in Kiffin’s offensive mind enough to handle the blowback.

“So we sort of shifted gears and changed philosophies. It was when Lane Kiffin came here, actually,” said Saban.” Lane was a lot like me. Old, pro style, run the ball, play-action passes, good drop-back game but never really was into the spread. 

“And we said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to figure this out together.’ Ever since that time, we just kept building it on with whatever coordinator that we had. It’s a combination of that and pro-style offense, pro-style quarterback, drop-back game, and it’s been pretty effective for us the last couple of years. But we’ve had really good players, too.”

While with the Crimson Tide, Kiffin helped Alabama win the 2016 College Football Playoff National Championship. Furthermore, he set the team up for future success prior to leaving to become the head coach at Florida Atlantic University.

Nick Saban’s philosophy of hiring former head coaches

While Kiffin helped usher in change for the Alabama offense, he also became one of the most prominent former head coaches to serve on Saban’s staff. Since he was hired, coaches like Steve Sarkisian, Butch Jones and now Bill O’Brien have attempted to remake their careers taking a back seat in Tuscaloosa.

“Those coaches have worked out very, very well,” Saban said, regarding the topic. “They’ve worked hard to try to do things the way we do them at Bama.”

While Kiffin helped dial in Alabama’s offensive identity, Sarkisian continued his success. Now, it’s O’Brien’s turn to take the helm. Obviously, Nick Saban’s philosophy has worked out well, and helped the Crimson Tide stay on top while evolving their game.