Alabama Should Hire Ole Miss Coach Lane Kiffin To Replace Nick Saban | Glenn Guilbeau

Kirby Smart's not coming. If you wanted a Nick Saban clone to replace the retiring legend at Alabama, Smart would be it. He was Saban's defensive coordinator at Alabama for four national championships and on his staff at LSU for Saban's first one. Then Smart won back-to-back national titles in Saban's likeness at Georgia in 2021 and '22.

But that's just it. Georgia is Alabama now, and that would be a lateral move. A lateral move at the most elite of levels, but lateral nonetheless.

Alabama's not going after Clemson's Dabo Swinney. A native of Pelham, Alabama, and a former Crimson Tide receiver and assistant coach, Swinney was once the Bama heir apparent. He beat Nick Saban for the national championship in the 2016 and '18 seasons. But he has faded. And he's just too quirky and kooky for staid Alabama.

Oregon's Dan Lanning Or Florida State's Mike Norvell

Oregon coach Dan Lanning or Florida State coach Mike Norvell would be excellent hires and safe.

Oregon coach Dan Lanning has put together two excellent seasons and is a former Georgia defensive coordinator. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

Lanning, 37, has won quickly at Oregon with 10-3 and 12-2 campaigns in his first two seasons at Eugene. He has Southeastern Conference experience as Georgia's defensive coordinator from 2019-21 with a national title. And he worked as a graduate assistant under Nick Saban at Alabama in 2015.

Lanning, though, just said Thursday morning that he is not interested in Alabama.

"I want to be here in Eugene for as long as Eugene will have me," he said in a video tweeted out. "This place has everything that I could possibly ever want. This is a little bit of a problem in society today with people looking for what’s next and whether it’s an opportunity, and the reality is the grass is not always greener. In fact the grass is damned green in Eugene."

And contrary to many reports, Lanning was not in Tuscaloosa on Wednesday night. Just like Urban Meyer never visited East Lansing to talk about coaching Michigan State last November.

"Everything I want exists right here," Lanning said back in November when Texas A&M considered him after firing Jimbo Fisher. "I'm not going anywhere. There's zero chance that I would be coaching somewhere else."

Lanning, though, may be making a mistake here, if Alabama truly wanted him.

Alabama Crimson Tide Coaching Job Is Just Different

That was Texas A&M and Oregon. This is Alabama. Everything's different. What "exists" at most other places is just better at Alabama. Oh, and few turn down Alabama. West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez did when Alabama was replacing Mike Shula after the 2006 season. He never recovered. After a disastrous run as Michigan's coach, he got fired and was fired again after some success at Arizona. Now, he is 130 miles northeast of Tuscaloosa in Jacksonville, Alabama, as Jacksonville State's coach. But that might as well be 130,000 miles away from the Tide.

After Rodriguez turned down Alabama, Tide athletic director Mal Moore hired Miami Dolphins head coach Nick Saban in January of 2007. And Rodriguez had to watch Saban become and remain the greatest coach in college football history over the next 17 seasons with six more national titles after his first one at LSU in the 2003 season. Lanning needs take note of that if he considers rejecting the Red Carpet.

Florida State coach Mike Norvell (center) celebrates winning the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game over Louisville on Dec. 2 in Charlotte, N.C. (Photo by John Byrum/Getty Images)

Norvell, 42, is more experienced than Lanning and drastically turned around Florida State, rather than keeping a very good one going as Lanning did after Mario Cristobal at Oregon. Norvell inherited a FSU program in 2020 coming off 5-7 and 6-7 seasons under Willie Taggart. He sweated, struggled and nearly got fired after 3-6 and 4-7 opening seasons before a 10-3 in 2022 and the breakthrough 13-1 and 8-0 Atlantic Coast Conference title this season. If he doesn't lose star quarterback Jordan Travis to an injury late this season, the Seminoles are in the College Football Playoffs. And Alabama is not.

If Alabama takes Norvell a month after it took Florida State's No. 4 spot in the CFP final four, a mob from Tallahassee may burn down Tuscaloosa. But it could happen.

Ole Miss's Lane Kiffin Would Be Great Hire For Alabama

Meanwhile, 160 miles northwest of Tuscaloosa may be the answer for Alabama in Oxford, Mississippi. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, 48, would take the job as quickly as he puts on shades. Kiffin can be more quirky and kooky that Swinney as well as flat immature at times.

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin (left) congratulates Alabama coach Nick Saban after Ole Miss lost at Alabama, 24-10, last Sept. 23 at Bryant-Denny Stadium. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

But he is a great coach and offensive mastermind. And the game remains mostly offense and quarterbacks now just as it was when Kiffin revitalized Saban's career and his pass offense as Alabama's offensive coordinator from 2014-16.

Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne and the Alabama establishment may look down its nose at Kiffin with good reason. Saban rushed his imminent exit from Alabama to the head coaching job at Florida Atlantic a week before the national championship game loss to Clemson in 2016, because Kiffin was revisiting his rebellious adolescent stage. This was a main reason USC fired him. He has matured for the most part in recent years at Oxford. He needs to button up, quick, though if Alabama knocks.

Meanwhile, what Kiffin has done at Ole Miss is remarkable, and Byrne needs to focus on that. The 10-3 and 6-2 season in 2021 marked the Rebels' first-ever, double-digit-win regular season. He followed that with an 11-2, 6-2 season in 2023 following a slip to 8-5 and 4-4 in 2022. Kiffin is 29-10 overall and 16-8 in the SEC over the last three seasons. Ole Miss has not had that kind of consistent success since before Archie Manning when coach Johnny Vaught was 29-3-1 from 1960-62.

Lane Kiffin Is Rebels' Best Coach Since Johnny Vaught

He knows how to attract quarterbacks, too. This past season, he had three quarterbacks from the Transfer Portal - Jaxson Dart, Spencer Sanders and Walker Howard - who were each better than Alabama's No. 1 quarterback in Milroe.

No question, Lane Kiffin needs to learn how to win more big games. He never beat Saban. But Alabama is like the U.S. Open in golf. Sometimes, it can win you. Even Mike DuBose, a terrible hire by Alabama to replace national champion Gene Stallings before the 1998 season, had one great season amid three bad ones. Kiffin can grow up into the job and be consistently great in time. And Saban likes him. Sees him as a wild child, sure, but there's something to build there.

Kiffin would bring coaching expertise and pizazz to Alabama along with better quarterbacks and an electrifying passing game - something the Tide sorely lacked this past season.

And there is this. With Kiffin, Alabama will never have to worry about hiring another offensive coordinator, another problem area in recent years.

Roll with Kiffin, Alabama. And Lane, keep Nick on speed dial for anything that may come up.