Lane Kiffin finished at Alabama, Sarkisian assumes OC duties
By Dan Parr
College Football 24/7 Editor
Nick Saban has called an audible ahead of Alabama's national championship game matchup with Clemson, and Lane Kiffin has called his last play for the Crimson Tide.
Saban announced on Monday that Kiffin would shift his focus to his new job as Florida Atlantic head coach and Steve Sarkisian will assume Kiffin's duties as offensive coordinator in advance of the Jan. 9 title game.
Initially, that transition was planned for after the season.
Saban and Kiffin described the decision as mutual on Monday.
"We appreciate all that Lane has done for our football program over the last three years," Saban stated in a school release. "We sat down following the Washington game and talked about the time demands of managing both jobs, and we recognized that it is best for our players, and for Lane, that we allow him to turn his full attention to his new head-coaching rule at FAU.
"This wasn't an easy decision and we appreciate the way Lane handled this in terms of doing what is best for our team. At the end of the day, both of us wanted to put our players in the best position to be successful. Obviously, we are in a unique situation here where we have our next offensive coordinator already on staff. We have full confidence that Sark will step in right away and make this a smooth transition."