Kiffin wanted Finebaum to endorse him for Alabama job but Saban blocked it

Laguna's gonna be big mad when he sees this...

Saban fired Kiffin a few days before a national title game. Saban firing anyone was basically unheard of. Saban knew Kiffin well and the trouble he was capable of. After all these years Kiffin has not changed much.

I’m just glad to see the university (or just Saban himself) ensuring Alabama wouldn’t have to deal with his antics.

I would be totally embarrassed if I was an LSU fan right now, having to deal with his nonstop childishness.

It’s just Finebaum saying it. I could believe it’s true because I sincerely do think Kiffin wanted badly to coach here.

But yeah, Finebaum so who knows

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Since it's paywalled... any proof of saban saying this or is it a trust finebaum situation?

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Sorry, I’ve been trying to make an archive ph link, but it hasn’t worked.

Sometimes (on iPhone), using reader mode prevents paywalling

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Sorry, I’ve been trying to make an archive ph link, but it hasn’t worked.

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My paywall comment was aimed at al.com, not you. Nonetheless, i do appreciate you tried to help get around it

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Sometimes (on iPhone), using reader mode prevents paywalling

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Chrome > settings > site settings > JavaScript > exceptions list.

LK is obviously a very good offensive coach who has adapted from a west-coast pro-style offense, to a heavy RPO centric offense, to the tempo run game and mobile QB with a lot of QB designed runs that you see today.

It’s very difficult to stay relevant (especially at the top) when the game is constantly evolving and the “hot name” on offense one season is a thing of the past two years later, and most fail to adapt and never come close to ever replicating the same level of success.

However, he is simply not professional or stable enough to be the face of Alabama Football imo.

All the constant “trolling”, the off-field antics which manifest themselves on the field with the losses to teams he has no business losing to that are typically a result of several failed 4th down attempts and refusing to settle for FG’s early in games when you know the fans is going to be tight and points are precious.

He has been the HC at FOUR major P-4 programs and an NFL franchise over a 23 year career and he has a Conference USA trophy to show for it.

He’s also self-destructive and can’t seem to ever stay in one place long enough to ever capitalize on building a program and reeling the benefits (like playing in a Conference Championship game like CKD has 3 of his past 4 seasons plus 2 Playoff appearances).

He’s also a lazy and apathetic when it comes to recruiting, and if pay-for-play ever gets reigned in some then his tale talent level on his roster will take a major hit.

Also, I will never forgive him from robbing the 2016 defense of a Natty and being remembered as CNS’s most dominant team (imo) bc of his immaturity and SELFISHNESS that led CNS being forced to dismiss him with the National Championship upcoming.

I personally like the stability CKD brings. Very little roster nor staff turnover from the guys he brought in on his own. The staff does a great job at both evals and developing players.

The recruiting and emphasis on being physical defensively and caring about playing complimentary football in all 3 phases of the game was a surprise to me.

I thought CKD would bring a high flying offense with a defense that would try and do just enough to hang on.

The physicality of the SEC has not proven to be too big of a challenge for him either as I originally feared. He’s 2-1 vs Kirby (7-1 vs Sark/Lanning/Kirby combined in his career), and has demolished AU and LSU, and was by far the more physical team all 4 times.

Obviously, the inconsistency from the offense and frustrations with Grubb is the major complaint (and rightly so), but I personally do NOT think CKD is necessarily “married” to what Grubb is doing.

He produced the Big10’s leading rusher while serving as the OC at Indiana (pre-NIL Indiana), and in Year 1 at Bama under Sheridan, they only averaged 19.7 passes per game, and I don’t recall many “gadget”/trick/cute plays that Grubb is fond of. Bama was 3rd in the SEC in rushing in Year 1.

The defense speaks for itself, and if the offense will just allow KR to settle into games and not put it all on his shoulders like Grubb did to Ty, and allow CNS era caliber RB’s like Crowell and Brown take the pressure off KR and all the slow-developing dropback passes that leads to broken plays and turnovers, then I believe this team is capable of beating anyone they play imo.

Next year is when they can really be extremely special imo.

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but why would our Prez and AD care who Finebaum endorses? That literally carries zero weight. So why would LK even seek that endorsement.

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I’m just glad to see the university (or just Saban himself) ensuring Alabama wouldn’t have to deal with his antics.

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And there were people on here mad because we wouldn’t go after him