The week leading up to Saturday’s meeting between Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban as coaches would not have been complete without Kiffin making headlines by taking a friendly jab at Saban.
That came Wednesday morning when Kiffin appeared on the Dan Patrick radio show and joked about Saban, who turns 69 this month, not being able to cover him if Saturday’s game was actually Kiffin vs. Saban on the field.
“I was telling someone the other day, I’m really worried about Coach. He’s elderly now,” Kiffin said.
Saban was asked about the comment at the end of his video news conference Wednesday evening.
“I think he’s probably right. I wouldn’t disagree with him. I guess what I would ask is when he’s my age, what’s he going to do?” Saban said, laughing as he finished the question.
“I don’t know, it’s a little bit of a disadvantage to be my age and have had a hip replacement, but I still pride myself on my ability to cover. I just don’t think I can cover him.”
Earlier in the news conference, Saban said he “can’t really speculate” on how Kiffin has improved as a coach since he departure from Alabama almost four years ago but praised his performance at Florida Atlantic and now Ole Miss.
“I think he’s done a really good job,” Saban said. “I made a statement that I always thought Lane would be a really, really good head coach and I think he has been since then. So I know I haven’t been around him, aight, to know exactly — but the product on the field he’s put out has been very good in terms of the last couple years he’s been a head coach and so far this year, they have played extremely well.”
Saban offered similar praise during his SEC coaches teleconference earlier Wednesday.
“We always had a tremendous amount of respect for Lane,” he said. “He’s a great coach. He’s a very good offensive play caller. He’s got a great feel for the game, really understands what the defense is trying to do and how to take advantage of it.”
Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.
