Nick Saban was one of the two people Lane Kiffin called before finally making up his mind about going to LSU over staying at Ole Miss.
Saban wanted Kiffin to "follow his heart" and it didn't take a genius to figure out that Kiffin's heart was somewhere in LSU.
The legendary Alabama coach advised Kiffin to build a new program altogether when he had spent six years, probably the best of his coaching career, building something College Football Playoff worthy.
On Friday's Pat McAfee Show, Saban gave justification for his counsel to Kiffin, but it was highly un-Saban-esque of him.
Nick Saban's logic behind LSU advice is way off
"One thing about this that I think people don't see maybe from the perspective of [the coach] is that sometimes, as a coach, you think of—and you said it—to build something. You build a program," Saban began.
I was publicly and privately telling Lane Kiffin that he should stay at Ole Miss..
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 5, 2025
That would have been a cool legacy #PMSLive https://t.co/fZeEnUICi4 pic.twitter.com/7UhIKGoHdP
"You take over a program that's not so good ... and you build it. Well once you build it, and you have success, what's the next challenge?"
Kiffin looking for another challenge after successfully passing the one named Ole Miss would be a very fair justification Saban's counsel.
But the real shocker from his advice that followed right after.
"Building a mountain is always much more fun than once you get to the top of it," McAfee followed up about Saban's views on Kiffin's move.
"Once you get to the top, because now the expectation goes up, and then all of the sudden you become more anxious about being able to sustain that level of success. So, sometimes it's easier to just say, 'I'll just go build someplace else'."
In his 28 years of coaching in college football, Saban has never been the one to practice or preach about weaseling your way out of a program where meeting the expectations has become a tall order.
And the expectations weren't even that high for Kiffin at Ole Miss; they just had to get through to the College Football Playoffs.
After witnessing him make Alabama the top program over the decade, one can only question the stark conflict between the philosophy he practiced and the one he preached to Kiffin.