Lane Kiffin describes his relationship with Nick Saban as “unusual.”

Kiffin, the Ole Miss coach who worked under Saban as offensive coordinator at Alabama, joined College Sports on SiriusXM Radio this week and described his relationship with the Alabama coach.

“I have respect for what he did for me,” Kiffin explained. “First of all, I respect the guy. He’s the greatest college coach to ever coach college football because he is doing it in an era different than Bear Bryant and some of those names because of scholarship limitations compared to back then.

“Imagine if Nick Saban had unlimited scholarships or if he could take 150 players. Good luck, everybody else. It would be Alabama and Georgia, I guess.”

In 2014, Saban hired Kiffin as its offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Kiffin was fired the previous September as coach at USC after a 62-41 loss at Arizona State. He finished with a 28-15 record in three-plus seasons with the Trojans following a one-year stint as coach at Tennessee in 2009, when he went 7-6 and nearly upset Saban’s then-No. 2-ranked Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa.

Over his time in Tuscaloosa, Kiffin was on the wrong end of some heated discussions, like the famous “ass-chewing.”

In 2016, Alabama beat Western Kentucky 38-10, but Saban wasn’t mad the Tide fumbled and Western Kentucky scored late. With 46 seconds left in the game, Saban laid into Kiffin.

As a result, after Kiffin did his time in Tuscaloosa, he would pick his spots to poke fun at his former boss.

“He’s like a family member where I can joke about him or something,” Kiffin explains, “but, if someone else does, it really pisses me off.”

Mark Heim is a sports reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim.