Lane Kiffin is out at Alabama, just one week before the Crimson Tide will play Clemson for the national championship.

That was the surprising news out of the University of Alabama athletic department Monday afternoon when head coach Nick Saban announced the news on ESPN, followed by a press release from the university.

Offensive analyst Steve Sarkisian, who has already been named offensive coordinator for 2017, will assume play-calling duties for the College Football Playoff national championship game.

After Kiffin, Alabama’s offensive coordinator for three seasons, accepted the head coaching job at Florida Atlantic, he and Saban agreed that Kiffin would stay on through the playoffs.

Obviously something changed. ESPN reporter Brett McMurphy reported that Kiffin was late to meetings the week of the Peach Bowl, and that that contributed to the decision to part ways this week.

Kiffin also missed the team bus following media day last Thursday and created a stir when he said there wasn’t much fun to be had at Alabama, only “ass-chewings.”

Off-the-field accusations and stumbles aside, Kiffin wasn’t able to get his offense in a rhythm against Washington Saturday.

Alabama struggled to sustain offense against the Huskies in the Peach Bowl semifinal with an unbalanced offensive attack. That was evidenced by 57 yards passing. There were sequences of the game where Bo Scarbrough, who rushed for a game-high 180 yards, went missing.

Saban and Kiffin said the decision to part ways was mutual to allow Kiffin to dedicate 100 percent of his time to head-coach job, although reading between the lines it was clear Saban felt his chief offensive assistant was distracted.

“…we just thought it was in the best interest of our players, our program,and for Lane, to assume his responsibilities as a head coach at Florida Atlanta,” Saban said. “I think the way that we went about the last game, whether it was the preparation, the practice, being able to focus on what we needed to do for our team relative to the distractions that occur when you're trying to hire a staff and recruit another place and all these types of things.

“You know, hey, Lane did the best he could, it's a difficult circumstance and we certainly wish him well. We both had a meeting (Sunday) and again this morning and we thought this would be in the best interest and mutually agreed for both parties to move on.”

In an interview with Paul Finebaum on Monday afternoon, Kiffin said it was “simply not true” that any single off-the-field situation or occurrence led to the decision. Juggling two jobs was too much for him.

"I think I thought it would be easier than it was,” Kiffin said. “I re-watched the game a couple times last night, and I was kind of thinking, 'I don't feel like we played great.' Those games happen. Now we still did some good things, we ran the ball really well. Didn't turn the ball over and called the game very conservative because our defense was playing so good...I was wondering, 'Was I always there?' because you are bouncing between the two jobs. I was interviewing guys at night, calling recruits at night.

"Coach and I were kind of just bouncing it around, and just felt that really, ‘I don't know that for the players, that you can do 100 percent (doing two jobs). You try. But then your mind's thinking 'OK, well I've got to interview this guy later' or 'Here's a list of recruits you've got to watch at night' vs. watching extra film for the opponent and stuff.”

"As we discussed it, (we) just felt like Sark and I are so similar, 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.

“This simply came down to that Sark will give us the best chance to win this week with it being a short week compared to a normal bowl game.”

Kiffin was the offensive coordinator for three seasons and helped set many program records. He coached two Heisman Trophy finalists (Amari Cooper, Derrick Henry) and one winner (Henry). He led the Crimson Tide to back-to-back-to-back SEC titles, the first time that happened since the mid-1990s.

"It's really been an awesome run. Three SEC Championships - that hasn't been done in so long. To be part of that with three different quarterbacks and great coaches and to learn from Coach Saban and to see how he manages the game and the preparation every week - it's been great. I don't know that anybody could have imagined it would go this good with three SEC Championships and three SEC Offensive Players of the Year all three years. Now we've got one game left to win back-to-back national championships."

Reach Aaron Suttles at aaron@tidesports.com or at 205-722-0229.