When now LSU head coach Lane Kiffin was working on rebuilding his coaching career after his firing by the USC Trojans, he spent three seasons under Nick Saban at Alabama. Saban helping rehabilitate the career of a coach who'd hit a setback was nothing new. It's a phenomenon that even took on a name of its own: "the Nick Saban Home for Wayward Coaches." Kiffin's stay in Tuscaloosa, though, was different, especially given what happened off the field.
Some of the shocking stories of Kiffin's years as a newly single man in a Southern college town were detailed in college football writer John Talty's new book, "Lane Being Lane: The Story of Lane Kiffin, College Football’s Agent of Chaos," which was excerpted in Vanity Fair on Wednesday. Kiffin's alleged womanizing and drinking in Tuscaloosa were such a potential problem that a former Alabama coach told Talty that Saban had some "helpful advice." “You’ve got to keep Lane away from the girls that are in college,” Saban said. Make sure they’ve graduated college or are working a job.” It seems that advice wasn't enough to keep Kiffin out of trouble, as his behavior still popped up on Saban's radar, as well as that of Saban's wife, Terry.
It also didn't help that Kiffin's purported alias of "Joey Freshwater" was well-known in Tuscaloosa, though Kiffin has disputed that he used the moniker. It wasn't until he had success at the lower-tier Florida Atlantic University that he rebuilt his reputation enough to land the job at Ole Miss and, eventually, LSU.
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