The shock move of Lane Kiffin from Ole Miss to LSU was one of the stories of the college football season. Kiffin left the Rebels on the eve of the College Football Playoff for their SEC rivals in what was one of the most dramatic and stunning coaching moves in the history of the sport.
Kiffin faced a lot of questions and a lot of criticism for the way he handled his departure from the assistant coaches that ping ponged back and forth to his bizarre attempts to hang on to the Ole Miss playoff run in the media.
And then there was the Nick Saban factor.
Kiffin, of course, coached under Saban at Ole Miss. And after he took the LSU job, Kiffin said that his former mentor’s encouragement to leave was what helped tip the scales in favor of the Tigers.
And on Tuesday at an event, Lane Kiffin said exactly what it was that Nick Saban told him that led him to make the jump to LSU.
“You’ll always regret, if you don’t go to LSU. It’s the best job in America.”
Nick Saban to @Lane_Kiffin during #LSU effort to land Kiffin as the new @LSUfootball head coach.
“When he said that, that really made the decision for me.” @WAFB pic.twitter.com/Oo6VxzwY1F
— Jacques Doucet (@JacquesDoucet) January 20, 2026
“I was torn. And when I called Coach Saban and talked it through with him he said, ‘You know Lane you’ll always regret, if you don’t go to LSU. It’s the best job in America,'” Kiffin said. “When he said that, that really made the decision for me.”
That advice opened a Pandora’s Box of questions about Saban’s role at ESPN and whether he should have been transparent about his conversations with his former assistant while also discussing the situation on television. College GameDay addressed the entire situation after the fact and cleared up all the whispers about Saban, Kiffin, and even college football superagent Jimmy Sexton.
Nick Saban, of course, coached at LSU in Baton Rouge and won a national championship. He then went to the pros to coach the Miami Dolphins. When that didn’t work out, he came back to college and won six more titles. Given Saban had so much success at Alabama, his words about LSU being the best job in America must have been quite the endorsement. And if the greatest college coach of all-time tells you to take the best job in the country, maybe we can all understand a bit more why Lane Kiffin felt like he couldn’t turn the opportunity down in spite of the wreckage left behind.
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