Nick Saban Threatened To Fire His Agent for Pushing Saban To Hire 'Narcissistic Prick' Lane Kiffin
AL.com — While Saban, at the time, tamped down speculation that their contrasting styles were creating friction, the book offers insight into what could be a caustic relationship.
One such moment came when Kiffin called Sexton warning him that an angry Saban was about to call. Why? The offensive coordinator told the head coach “he didn’t know what he was talking about” in a meeting.
True to form, Saban’s less-than-cheerful call came within minutes.
“That son of a bitch,” Saban said to his agent, according to the book. “I’m going to fire you, Jimmy, for ever talking me into hiring that narcissistic prick.”
The agent who reps a solid majority of the SEC coaches (including Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer and Auburn’s Hugh Freeze) had to talk Saban down that day but the two would continue to have their moments.
The book quoted a Saban conversation with another former assistant about Kiffin being the only assistant who constantly questioned Saban and “refused to adapt Saban’s preferred approach.”
“I ain’t never had a f------ coach I can’t control,” a disgusted Saban told this assistant.
Nick Saban putting his offense in the hands of Lane Kiffin is really one of the great college football subplots of the 21st century. There has never been someone more seemingly designed in a lab to make Saban want to kill himself and yet Kiffin had the keys to Alabama's offense for three seasons and was a key piece in the Tide winning a national championship.
I am not surprised at all that Saban had a blow-up like this in regards to having to work with Kiffin — I'm sure there were dozens, actually — but I am surprised he threatened to fire Jimmy Sexton, because I can promise you that was never going to happen. Sexton is maybe better at his job than any other person in America is at theirs. He makes every one of his clients who is remotely worth their salt rich beyond their wildest dreams no matter what happens to them — hired, fired, rumored to be in play for a new job, etc. He gets one of his clients hired at one school, gets three more clients raises by linking them to the now vacant job left by the first guy before finally installing a fourth client at that school, so on and so forth — all while taking a cut of each new contract. He has a license to print money.
The fact Saban mentioned Sexton having something to do with Kiffin's hiring at Alabama at all should tell you what kind of pull this guy has.
I'd enjoy an entire book on just the three years Saban and Kiffin worked together, though. If those two would ever sit down and give their real, unfiltered thoughts on each other, it would be must-read stuff. I don't care what they say publicly, I know they definitely still hate each other's guts.
But yeah, Saban was never going to fire Jimmy Sexton.