Lane Kiffin explains why he’s leaving Alabama before the National Championship

On Monday, it was announced that Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin would not be coaching the Tide’s offense for the College Football Playoff National Championship Game against Clemson. Kiffin accepted the FAU head coaching job last month, but was expected to coach through the Tide’s Playoff run, including the last game. Later Monday, Kiffin appeared on The Paul Finebaum Show to discuss Nick Saban’s decision.

Below is a transcription of his response to Finebaum’s first question regarding what happened with the decision.

“Coach and I had spent some time together last night as we were at the office game planning in Atlanta, and then again this morning, and just kind of bouncing some things around and trying to do both jobs, I thought it would be easier than it was. But as I looked at it I kind of thought, you know I re-watched the game a couple times last night and I was kind of thinking, ‘I don’t think we played great.’

“Now, those games happen, we still did some good things well, we ran the ball well, didn’t turn the ball over, and called the game very conservative because our defense was playing so good. So, it wasn’t anything so much about the game, I was just wondering ‘was I always there?’ Because, you are balancing two jobs, you are interviewing guys at night, and calling recruits at night, and I just kind of, I was just talking to coach.

“I had seen Kirby [Smart] go through it, he had a month to prepare, doing both things. Now, we have a little over a week for this game, and coach and I were just kind of bouncing it around, and just felt that really I don’t know that for the players that you can do 100%percent. You try, but your mind’s thinking ‘OK, I got an interview this guy later, or here’s a list of recruits you have at night’ vs. watching extra films for the opponents.”

He later went on the describe Steve Sarkisian, who will call plays for the Tide for the game against Clemson, as well as the 2017 season.

“Sark and I are so similar, you know we kind of speak the same language, call games the same way, that he would probably give us the best chance to win because 100 percent of his mind all day long is on the game. I’m still going to help in any way that I can, win the game, watched some film last night [and] this morning, these guys are a very good team obviously. I talked with some idea to Sark, and [we] wanna go win this game, but it’s the best thing for the players at this time for Sark to call the game, and to lead all the meetings all week long, because I want these guys to win and they deserve to have the best.”

Finebaum then asked Kiffin about some of the comments he made this week, specifically one he said about not using the word “fun” at Alabama, as well as how he missed the bus in the days leading up to the Playoff for a second time in a row.

“The missing the bus thing, the media was there, and we’re sitting there at media day and I was doing every interview that I was supposed to do. I walked straight from there out and the bus had already left. They had other cars there for us, too, it really wasn’t that big of a deal. There was no distractions as far as that or anything like that.”

Here’s what Kiffin had to say earlier Monday, in a statement released by Alabama.

Kiffin will now fully take over at FAU, where he was hired as head coach last month.