It’s very hard to get fired when you’ve already got a new job lined up but kudos to Lane Kiffin, who found a way to be relieved of his offensive coordinator duties a week before Alabama plays in the national title game against Clemson.
Alabama's press release on Lane Kiffin leaving the staff and Steve Sarkisian serving as OC effective immediately. pic.twitter.com/kGffYBiwkS
— Barrett Sallee 🇺🇸 (@BarrettSallee) January 2, 2017
Kiffin has a head-coaching job waiting for him at Florida Atlantic, but this is hilarious.
“We appreciate all that Lane has done for our football program over the last three years,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said. “We sat down following the Washington game and talked about the time demands of managing both jobs, and we recognized that it is best for our players, and for Lane, that we allow him to turn his full attention to his new head coaching role at FAU.
“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.”
They fired him for him, duh. I love how they make it seem like a player asked Kiffin a question and he held up one finger while he was on the phone with someone at FAU. “Uh huh. Uh huh. No, just some kid asking about a pass protection scheme against a Clemson inside stunt. No, I’ve got time to talk.”
This is now the fourth time Kiffin has been dispatched from a job.
- In 2008, the Raiders got rid of Kiffin he went 5-15 and was called a “liar” by Al Davis and denied a hefty portion of his contract. Kiffin filed a $2.6 million grievance to recover the money but an arbitrator agreed with Davis‘ assertion that there was cause to fire him.
- In 2010, after one season with Tennessee, Kiffin left for USC.
- In 2014, after four seasons with USC, Kiffin was fired inside an airport terminal after being pulled off the team bus by AD Pat Haden.
And now Steve Sarkisian, who took over for Kiffin at USC the season after he was let go, is replacing Kiffin as the offensive coordinator at Alabama. After years of failing upward, Kiffin is probably three years away from being fired by FAU’s AD inside a gas station bathroom before taking a job coaching a juvenile hall football team in North Dakota.
