You will rarely see Lane Kiffin disagree with Nick Saban.
In fact, more times than not, the Ole Miss coach will defend the man he refers to as the GOAT more times than not.
Such was the case on Wednesday, a day after the former Alabama coach went to Washington to speak to congressmen on the state of college athletics.
Saban, 72, retired after 17 years at Alabama earlier this year. Now, he is giving his perspective on college athletics in the world of NIL and transfer portal.
“All the things I believed in for all these years, 50 years of coaching, no longer exists in college athletics,” Saban said during an appearance on Capitol Hill at a roundtable hosted by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas). “So it was always about developing players. It was always about helping people be more successful in life.
“My wife even said to me, we had all the recruits over on Sunday, and she would always meet with the mothers about how she was going to help impact their sons and they’d be well taken care of. She came to me right before I retired and said ‘Why are we doing this?’ I said what do you mean? She said ‘All they care about is how much you’re going to pay them. They don’t care about how much you’re going to develop them, which is what we’ve always done. So why are we doing this?’
“To me, that was a red alert that we are creating a circumstance here that’s not beneficial to the development of young people. Which is why I always did what I did. My dad did it. I did it. So that’s the reason why I liked college athletics more than the NFL.”
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Many on social media have suggested the former Alabama coach simply couldn’t keep up with the changing times.
Former players disagree with that narrative.
“There are thousands of former players for him who are better men/husbands/fathers/(inset career field) because he cared,” former Alabama center Ryan Kelly posted. “He demanded the most on and off the field, guys respected that standard. The college game needs that. Develop boys to men.”
As you can Kiffin agreed with Kelly, who wasn’t the only former player to defend the former Alabama coach.
Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.
