Nick Saban threatened to fire agent Jimmy Sexton over 'narcissist' Lane Kiffin, new book claims

An explosive tell-all book reveals a tense dynamic between Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin at Alabama, including one very heated phone call.

The relationship between Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin at Alabama wasn't exactly a match made in heaven. / Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Lane Kiffin helped modernize the Alabama football offense in his short tenure at the school, but the relationship between he and head coach Nick Saban wasn’t a match made in heaven.

That’s according to a new book, “The Price: What It Takes to Win In College Football’s Era of Chaos” by Armen Keteyian and John Talty, which details how it was super-agent Jimmy Sexton, who represented both Saban and Kiffin, who played a role in bringing the two together.

At the time, Kiffin’s hiring was heralded as a key moment in Alabama evolving from its traditional, pro-style offense of Saban’s early years to a more wide-open, spread attack that defined the second-half of his historic tenure with the school.

But the relationship quickly soured as the two personalities often conflicted behind the scenes.

One example of that conflict culminated in Saban calling Sexton and threatening to fire him after becoming enraged at Kiffin’s attitude in coaches’ meetings.

Kiffin actually warned Sexton that an angry phone call from Saban was imminent after Kiffin allegedly told Saban that “he didn’t know what he was talking about,” according to AL.com.

Minutes later, the call came.

“That son of a bitch,” Saban said of Kiffin to the agent, according to a review of the book. “I’m going to fire you, Jimmy, for ever talking me into hiring that narcissistic prick.”

Kiffin arrived at Alabama at a crucial moment in his own career, having then recently been dismissed as USC head football coach, infamously giving him the news at the airport and leaving him there.

Going to Alabama in 2014 was seen as an ideal chance for Kiffin to revive his coaching reputation.

At the time, Saban noted that “we have to change” on offense and that Kiffin could help him “figure out all these RPOs and all this spread offense and these motions and all these things.”

But that didn’t stop there being a personality conflict between them, with Saban reportedly telling another assistant at one point, “I ain’t never had a f--king coach I can’t control,” and in another moment yelling at Kiffin so badly that he later recalled he thought Saban would fight him.

Saban finally parted ways with Kiffin notably between the semifinal and national championship game after the 2016 season, and after Kiffin accepted the head coaching position at FAU.

He went 26-13 in three seasons there before moving onto Ole Miss, where Kiffin is 34-15 in four years and is coming off bringing the school its first 11-win season.

In his career, Kiffin is 0-5 against Saban at Tennessee and Ole Miss.

(AL.com)

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