Nick Saban got caught in the crosshairs of the Lane Kiffin drama, and now the accusations are coming at him from all sides.
Saban was one of the only two people Kiffin called for advice to make his LSU decision, but Saban had publicly revealed his answer to Kiffin beforehand. Saban wanted Kiffin to follow his heart.
Those words were precisely why Ole Miss fans were first confused, then enraged when Saban backed Kiffin's outrageous demand to coach in the College Football Playoff.
“Nick Saban privately encouraging Lane Kiffin to take the LSU job, not disclosing that on TV while saying Ole Miss should let him coach in the playoff, is that going to be addressed?” Chris Vannini of The Athletic said.
Nick Saban tried justifying his double-talk
Now at gunpoint on ESPN's College GameDay in Atlanta, Saban made a clean breast of it.
“Well, I think I get a lot of calls because some people view me maybe as a senior professional that has a lot of experience in the game, after 50 years, 25 years of the head coach. So as a person, as a human being, you want to help everybody you can,” Saban said.
"You know, I’m kind of in this for the betterment of the game, really, for the players and coaches."
Rece Davis and Nick Saban address CAA, Jimmy Sexton, and Saban's conversations with Lane Kiffin on College GameDay. pic.twitter.com/cuWhVjIY72
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 6, 2025
“The first thing I ask a coach, if he’s talking about contemplating changing jobs, is, What do you want to do? And I want them to follow their heart in terms of what they want to accomplish and what they want to do. I never tell anybody what they should do. I just try to bring some thought into it so that they can make good decisions for themselves and their family and their future.”
The moment Ole Miss fans knew Kiffin was avoiding the accusations instead of actually tuning them out to focus on the Rebels' season was the moment they knew his heart was in LSU. They were just waiting for Kiffin to drop it.
However, Saban backing up Kiffin to continue coaching in the CFP, when he himself fired him right before the National Championship once he found out he accepted the FAU job, was outright egregious.
Hypocritical or not, Ole Miss knew exactly what they wanted to do, and have held their ground.