Lane Kiffin finally ran the dang ball, and a couple of days later he was no longer the University of Alabama's offensive coordinator.
Kiffin was relieved of his duties on Monday, two days after the Crimson Tide defeated Washington 24-7 in the Peach Bowl semifinal of the College Football Playoff at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
Head coach Nick Saban said he and Kiffin reached a mutual decision to part ways after meeting on the day after the game and again Monday morning. Kiffin is leaving to assume full-time responsibilities as head coach at Florida Atlantic after Saban had previously announced that he would finish out the postseason at UA.
So one week before Alabama plays Clemson for the national championship in Tampa, Steve Sarkisian – already named as offensive coordinator for next season – has taken command of the Crimson Tide's offense.
The change stems from Saban's dissatisfaction with Alabama's offense in the Washington game.
"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," was the reason for the change, Saban said in an interview on ESPN.
Saban said "distractions that occur when you're trying to hire a staff and recruit another place and all these type things." Those responsibilities affected Kiffin's preparation for the Peach Bowl.
After the game, Kiffin also expressed disappointment.
"We didn't do as well as we wanted to do today," he said in an on-field interview a few minutes after the final whistle.
Alabama gained 326 yards against the Huskies, who came into the contest ranked in the top 11 nationally in both scoring and total defense. The 24 points and total yardage were second-lowest for UA on the season, behind only a 10-0 victory at LSU where Alabama gained 323 yards.
There were other problems against Washington: Alabama converted just 4 of 14 third-down opportunities and managed only 16 first downs. While the Crimson Tide ran for 269 yards, it gained just 57 yards through the air, with quarterback Jalen Hurts completing 7 of 14 attempts.
Ironically, the low output came in a game where Kiffin called a most un-Kiffin-like game. Criticized for a propensity to get away from the run by many fans, he called 45 rushing plays and 19 passes (with five of those pass-play calls resulting in either scrambles or sacks). Kiffin didn't utilize the jet-sweep pass – a short forward lateral to a receiver in motion – that had been a staple of his offense all season.
Kiffin said he was playing to win. Washington led the nation in takeaways, with more than 30 on the season, but Alabama didn't surrender a single one.
"We said all week that we'd win this game no matter what if we don't turn the ball over," he said. "We didn't turn it over – we put it on the ground (on a fumble) but we got it back – but this (Washington) team thrives on turnovers, they don't give up big plays, they play really good defense."
Kiffin admitted that he didn't take a lot of risks with Alabama keeping Washington's offense in check.
"That's kind of why there were times there that we were very conservative in the second half, just felt like the way our defense was playing it didn't make much sense to take a bunch of chances," he said. "These guys make a living off of turnovers, and if we don't give them turnovers, we don't give them shorts fields, it's going to be hard for them to score on our defense."
The low number of pass calls was out of respect to the back end of Washington's defense.
"We did think their corners were good players and that would give us some problems," Kiffin said.
Saban said he has tried to juggle the responsibilities of two jobs before, when he was finishing a season with the Cleveland Browns after being named head coach at Michigan State.
"You know, hey, Lane did the best he could, it's a difficult circumstance and we certainly wish him well," Saban said.
Reach Tommy Deas at tommy@tidesports.com or at 205-722-0224.
