Nick Saban called Alabama's 38-10 defeat of Western Kentucky one of the worst wins of his tenure, an opinion perhaps influenced by what happened on the sideline in the game's final minute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX-JGDBd4ls
After the game, Saban described the interaction like this:
And now it appears we finally know why Saban decided to take such a large bite out of Lane Kiffin's hind quarters.
Alabama radio analyst and Saban friend Phil Savagae has written a book on Nick Saban's Alabama entitled 4th & Goal Everyday: Alabama's Relentless Pursuit of Perfection. Savage touches on the sideline dustup and describes it thusly:
Neither Saban nor Kiffin said publicly what caused the dustup, which occurred after a careless Alabama fumble led to a Western Kentucky touchdown in garbage time. Savage writes that Kiffin said into his headset "dumb players make dumb plays," which all the Crimson Tide coaches heard. Saban snapped back with "no, dumb offensive coordinators call dumb plays." There were probably a few expletives left out.
Obviously Saban is, uh, lecturing Kiffin in a much more detailed manner than that, and we'll probably never get a word-for-word transcript, but it is instructive into the deteriorating relationship between Alabama's head coach and its offensive coordinator that eventually led to Kiffin leaving the team before an eventual loss to Clemson in the CFP national championship.
4th & Goal Everyday will be released Aug. 29.