Name: Lane Kiffin on What It's Like Working for Nick Saban
Uploaded: 2025-05-05T07:00:26.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Lane Kiffin on What It's Like Working for Nick Saban' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-05-05. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Lane Kiffin on What It's Like Working for Nick Saban' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-05-05. Transcript available.

I want to talk about Coach Saban.
You worked with Coach Saban for a while.
And you guys have had kind of a storied history
over the years, I think.
Do you guys still communicate?
Yeah, yeah, we do.
He's not a big, like, text guy.
But we talk every once in a while.
He's not text, he's like to write.
Is he more written, kind of, or?
No, you got to call him.
Okay.
He did just learn how in the last, like, two years,
two texts, he had never text before.
Wow.
Ever.
Like, when I was assisting Coach Sarah,
he was just like, I'm not texting.
Like, he just refused.
It was like that old school.
Like, he's got those old school things
that aren't changing.
And then I, like, got a text, like, two years ago
from him that said, good luck, or something like that.
And I was like, to the group, I was like,
dude, I got a Saban text.
Like, this is amazing.
This is like, Vanderbilt beating Alabama.
Like, this isn't supposed to happen.
Never thought I'd see this day.
And then Kirby's like, yeah, I got 100 this year.
This year, too.
Like, he's, like, learned how to text.
Just, like, you get one or two words.
But that relationship's, like, almost in a way,
kind of like how you can struggle sometimes.
Like, maybe when you're in it with, like, a parent.
And then you get out, like, you get older.
And you get away, you get out of the house.
Yeah.
And then you're like, dang, man, he was on to something.
He was right on those things.
So I look back, and I was there for three years.
And there was friction initially.
And I look back, there's all my fun.
I'm the assistant.
You know what I mean?
Like, he's the head coach.
You know, whatever he says goes.
Oh, yeah.
You're supposed to keep it classy over there.
Yes.
And that's not, his way is very, like, this is the way, like,
there's not open discussions about it and stuff.
And I was, I'd work for Pete Carroll as assistant.
So that's all I knew.
And it's just totally different.
So, like, you come in, you have an open conversation,
and you're questioning the process.
No, I just was asking, like, if we looked at this, you know, like,
so I didn't really know how it worked right away.
And so it took a little bit of time.
Like, he didn't want a lot of suggestions.
No, no, no, no.
It's not like a suggestion box, like, hey, let me pull this.
Oh, here, here's a good idea.
You know, like, so it was, it was just something I wasn't used to that way.
And so it took a little bit of time.
But now that I look back, I'm like, okay, he was so strict on everything,
kind of, like, in a parent way, like, with his team, with the players,
the coaches, like, nothing, nothing changed.
We won a national championship, and there's 7.30 staff meeting the next morning.
I'm like, what are we meeting on at 7.30 the next morning?
He's like, we're behind.
You know, because we won the championship, everybody else was recruiting,
and we're behind.
And I was like, well, what are we doing?
But now I look back and be like, that's why he is what he is.
That's why he was so great, because it was like the standard never changed.
No matter what.
And then it took me some time to understand, too.
Like, when you, when we were winning and playing really well and coaching
really well,
he was harder on you, because he didn't want you to have relief syndrome.
You know, like, oh, man, we've made it.
And I didn't really understand that.
Would he call it that relief syndrome?
I saw he was on the pivot, like, a month ago, and I listened to it, and my son
Knox,
and he talked about it in there.
He'd never explained it to us, but it was interesting to hear.
And he said, most people are born with a relief syndrome.
He wasn't.
He just always had this way of thinking, like, hey, you never relax.
Like, but most people are.
So he went above and beyond to make sure people didn't have that.
Like, we'd win a game, and then he comes in and just, like, rips us.
Yeah.
And we're like, man, we played great.
Like, coach, great.
That was because he was guarding against that, because he knew that that could
happen.
Dang.
Yeah.
He wasn't letting anything be a possibility to lose.
When I left, we'd won 26 straight games.
So I only hadn't had many losses.
But I do remember the three losses that we had over the three years.
Like, he actually, after those, was calm.
Like, that's when we didn't get ripped.
Because he's like, they're going to get ripped anyway.
I don't need to.
You know, like, I need to, when they're feeling good about themselves, bring
him down.
So I didn't really understand that at first.
And now I look back going, man, there's a reason he's the greatest.
Wow.
Yeah, do you regard him as the greatest?
Yeah.
I do.
I think because, you know, to Bear O'Brien's, the, like, legends back then, no
offense,
they had, like, unlimited scholarships.
Coach Saban did an error where there were reduced scholarship numbers.
He also did an error when you're losing coaches left and right.
You know, he lost so many assistant coaches, and he just kept winning.
And I don't think anybody will ever be able to do that again.
And he couldn't even do that again.
The way that it's going anyway.
And now this, with the money part and all that stuff, that's, that's like
evening things
out that people can't stack the teams like he did.
Because now your second team and third teams, maybe before where they had to
sit there and
wait, they, they couldn't leave back then.
Now they leave.
So you lose your backups because someone gives them more money.
But how was he able to convince players to sit there, be just as good and sit
second
or third position?
That's tough.
I feel like.
Yeah.
Well, that's what I'm saying.
Part of his time, they couldn't leave yet.
Oh, I see what you're saying.
You couldn't transfer.
Now you can transfer twice, twice a year.
So he still was able at the end to convince some guys to stay, but he started
losing back
so the teams weren't as deep.
Did he have to recruit the whole time or at a certain point did the acumen of
their coach,
of their winning, just to be the recruiter for him, do you think?
That helped a lot, but he never changed.
That was him.
Like there was no relief.
So it never changed.
Like he recruited every day, no matter what.
And he was nonstop and he was relentless.
People always say, okay, well, why did he win so many championships?
Why was he so good?
And then I was like, well, there's the process.
There's the assistant coaches.
There's the discipline, all these different areas.
Right.
But really the number one thing that mattered the most, he out-recruited people.
He got better players.
Right.
When you get better players, you win a lot of games.
And it wasn't, it wasn't just coming there just to come there.
They came there because he recruited really hard.
Got it.
Did he, what was he like?
I mean, did you ever get to spend any time with him?
Like, was he good at cards or anything like that?
Or was he, did he do anything else besides, like, did he ever take his whistle
off, you
think?
Like even in the shower, you know?
Coach didn't do a lot of other things.
I didn't, I didn't know he golfed.
I never golfed with him, but he golfed.
Did he ever invite you, or did he ever dress up for Halloween?
Like, was there anything you ever saw Coach Saban do that was like, felt a
little bit more,
not as much like, who's that guy, Robert Downey Jr.?
What's the character he plays?
Iron, that was outside of Iron Man, you know?
It's interesting.
You know, Nick Saban, and people would joke Nick Satan, you know, he was born
on Halloween.
Was he really?
His birthday every year is Halloween.
No.
Yeah.
So maybe his whole frickin' existence was a costume.
Maybe.
But he did not, there was not, he wasn't gonna wear a costume or something like
that on Halloween,
so there was no like, he didn't have like Halloween parties and stuff.
On your own birthday, even put on a little cattail or something.
Because it was, no day was different.
Every day was the same.
Wow.
I will say this, I went to Easter one time at his house.
And my kids, they were still living in California with my wife.
And, because I took the Alabama job, and then they came for Easter.
Yeah.
And he invited us over.
And we went over there, and he was different.
Now, he didn't put on like a bunny costume.
But, like, he was helping the kids with like the Easter eggs, and he had one
grandkid at the time.
And he was like carrying around, and like, and it was totally different than
the office Nick Saban
that we would see all the time.
You know, like, so, that was pretty cool to see that side of him.
Now, he's also so competitive that he, his grandkid was like one,
and all of a sudden the grandkid found the golden egg, you know, like,
while he was with Coach way over there, you know, so Coach also was gonna make
sure that he won.
Yeah.
But it was pretty cool to see him like that.
Yeah.
Yeah, you gotta be different.
You can't, when Jesus is making a comeback, you can't play defense on that day,
you know?
That's when you gotta just call the dogs off, I feel like.
Yeah.
But it is definitely skeptical that a one-year-old found a golden egg.
Was he playing against other kids, like, of age children?
Yeah, mine were like 8, 10, and 12.
Oh, God.
That's sad.
But, yeah, winners win, you know?
That's what they say.
Do you think that Coach Saban misses coaching?
I do.
I think that, and he mentioned that in that Pivot podcast, but I did always
think,
okay, if he was gonna do this, he was gonna have to have, and I used to say he's
gonna have to
kind of have that college game day spot, because he's gonna want to still, like,
be involved.
You know, he's just so wired all day long to do something for his entire life.
Now he ain't, he's not gonna sit around and just, you know, be a grandpa.
Yeah.
That's not him.
So, I think because of that, that's helped a lot.
I wouldn't actually be surprised if he came back in the NFL, even, you know, as
head coach,
because he just, he's so good at it and so in him that I'm not sure he won't
come back.
Thank you.