How Nick Saban and Pete Carroll have influenced Ole Miss football

Lane Kiffin of the Ole Miss Rebels is a good college football coach. To be frank, it’s taken some time and there have been plenty of ups and downs, but Kiffin is 48-18 overall, now in his sixth season at Ole Miss, and he currently has the Rebels at 4-0 and ranked No. 13 in the country.

That’s impressive, but Kiffin has also had a ton of help along the way during those ups and downs.

He went from being fired on the tarmac at USC in 2013 after perhaps flying too close to the sun as the Trojans’ head coach, to getting a bounce-back gig as offensive coordinator at quarterbacks coach for Nick Saban at Alabama from 2014 to 2016. He helped the Crimson Tide win a championship in 2015.

Let’s not forget that early in his career as an assistant, Kiffin also learned from Pete Carroll at USC. Before he took a job in the NFL as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders (his overall record was 5-15 and he was fired in his second season), Kiffin was a top assistant under Carroll at USC. He helped the Trojans win back-to-back national championships in 2003 and 2004.

Lane Kiffin learned from Nick Saban and Pete Carroll

You really can’t ask for a better way to learn, taking advice and seeing the day-to-day of two of the best to ever do it.

That’s something Kiffin clearly is thankful for. He went on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Wednesday and shouted out both of those coaches.

“(Saban) was awesome for those three years,” Kiffin said (h/t On3). “To give me that opportunity to come and work with him, again, think about those defensive coaches I got to be around. I got to be the offensive coordinator for a national championship Alabama Nick Saban team and USC national championship teams. That’s unbelievable to have those opportunities to learn from. I just take a lot of both Pete Carroll and Nick Saban and what they did and have kinda combined it to what we are here. I think we’re a real combination of both.”