With the college football coaching carousel in full effect, Lane Kiffin is the latest potential candidate to take his name out of the conversation.
According to ESPN, Kiffin "definitely" plans to return to the University of Alabama to serve as head coach Nick Saban's offensive coordinator. While the Crimson Tide defense was once again the team's focal point, Kiffin's offense proved to be well-rounded and quite potent.
Though Kiffin was not on the team when players like Amari Cooper and T.J. Yeldon were recruited, he was able to manage their touches and playing time to maximize the offense's overall success.
"I think that we've still got a lot of stuff we can do better. We'll obviously be working with a new quarterback, and that will be exciting," Kiffin told ESPN. "We've done that before. To me, that's always exciting, the unknown. You've got a new quarterback to see if we can do this again, to see if we can perform really well."
Alabama averaged 281 yards through the air and 209 on the ground, while putting up an average of 37 points per game. After four years with A.J. McCarron under center, the team was also turning to a new quarterback, but Blake Sims emerged as beyond competent.
Kiffin took over the Tide offense after spending some time unemployed. With Ohio State ahead of him in the Sugar Bowl and potentially the National Championship after, his next true test may come this offseason. Cooper and Yeldon appear primed to enter the NFL Draft while Sims has no more NCAA eligibility, so Kiffin will need to restock the team's offense.
At the prospect of replacing all three, Kiffin said it would be "a big challenge."
"And like I said, the phone wasn't ringing," Kiffin said. "And [Saban] called. And he took a chance. I know he thought a lot about it. Because it wasn't going to be the popular, necessarily the media hire, as he's referred to before."
