Alabama Ditches Lane Kiffin One Week Before Championship Game

Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin will be the head coach at FAU next season, but he continued to serve as Alabama’s OC during Saturday’s playoff game against Washington. It was assumed that he would do the same during next week’s championship game, but head coach Nick Saban just announced that Kiffin and Alabama are parting ways immediately.

In a release sent out by the school, Saban announced that incoming offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian will take over for Kiffin before next Monday’s championship game. This move doesn’t appear to have anything to do with any contractual quirks created by Kiffin’s new job at FAU. From the release:

“This wasn’t an easy decision and we appreciate the way Lane handled this in terms of doing what is best for our team. At the end of the day, both of us wanted to put our players in the best position to be successful. Obviously, we are in a unique situation here where we have our next offensive coordinator already on staff. We have full confidence that Sark will step in right away and make a smooth transition.”

You’re free to believe that this was a joint decision made by Kiffin and Saban, or you can believe that Saban booted his offensive coordinator right before the national championship game because deep down he, like the rest of us, despises Lane Kiffin and didn’t want to miss out on the satisfaction of firing him.