Nick Saban responds to Lane Kiffinâs comments on Alabama’s defense
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin held a Sunday press conference on Zoom this week for the first time all season. During the availability, Kiffin said he thought Travaris Robinson was calling Alabama football’s defense against South Florida, not defensive coordinator Kevin Steele.
“We’ve been against Kevin a number of times. Worked with him at Alabama, then played against him at Auburn and LSU,” Kiffin said. “But it seems like there’s been a change there. I don’t know what happened after the Texas game. But, you know, our guys watching the TV copy schematical in this last game, it certainly seems like T-Rob’s now calling the defense. We played him before at South Carolina, so we’re preparing accordingly, you know, for him calling the defense. He’s done a good job too. And they’ve got really good players.”
Kiffin has enjoyed playing mind games with Alabama head coach Nick Saban since he left his job as offensive coordinator in Tuscaloosa. Sunday’s comments certainly would qualify.
On Monday, ahead of Alabama’s Saturday game against Ole Miss at Bryant-Denny Stadium, Saban mentioned Kiffin’s comments during his opening statement. He emphasized that Steele is in charge.
“Kevin Steele is the defensive coordinator,” Saban said. “He has all the defensive coordinator responsibilities. The only thing that we tried to improve on from an administrative standpoint was gameday administration of getting the signals in quicker. So that’s the only thing that we worked on together as a staff. The whole staff made a contribution to it and I think it was a lot better in this game than it was in the Texas game.”
Alabama and Ole Miss are scheduled to kick off at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. The game will be aired on CBS.