The Nick Saban-Lane Kiffin marriage was unlike anything we've ever seen in college football. It was a mixing of talent, a mashing together of generations, a meshing of talent that, when put together, created a wholly unique cocktail that we're unlikely to ever witness again. Imagine the Rolling Stones adding Taylor Swift as lead vocalist.
The evidence was often there in plain sight.
"There are no arguments," Saban said afterward. "Those are called ass-chewings."
We also know how the marriage ended. Saban dismissed Kiffin in between the College Football Playoff semifinal and championship game at the conclusion of the 2016 season, finding him insufficiently devoted to the cause of winning Alabama a national championship before taking over at Florida Atlantic.
In between, the relationship was even more volatile than we knew. Or, perhaps it was exactly as volatile as we suspected.
In their forthcoming book The Price: What It Takes to Win In College Football's Era of Chaos, authors Armen Keteyian and John Talty detail how an irate Saban once called superagent Jimmy Sexton, threatening to fire him for placing the insubordinate Kiffin on his staff.
“That son of a bitch,” Saban said, in an excerpt obtained by AL.com. “I’m going to fire you, Jimmy, for ever talking me into hiring that narcissistic prick.”
Turns out, Sexton was expecting the call. Kiffin had called Sexton, also his agent, to warn him The Boss was calling. The reason? Kiffin had told Saban in a staff meeting that the "he didn’t know what he was talking about."
Sexton himself also had to give Kiffin a round of... let's call it stern professional development.
The book chronicles one such phone call, which Kiffin made just hours before a November 2015 kickoff in Tuscaloosa. The offensive coordinator called his agent to ask about a head coaching position that was coming open.
Sexton was enraged.
“I was screaming at him,” Sexton said, according to The Price. “‘Let’s go play the game today. Let’s win the game today. If you win games, you’ll get a job. People don’t hire guys who are losing; they hire guys who are winning.’”
We can study FootballScoop's list of jobs that came open in 2015 and wonder which job Kiffin might have had his eye on at the time: Memphis? South Carolina? Missouri? Miami?
It's also funny to imagine the conversation in light of how coaches get jobs in Sextonland. I'm thinking of a former Saban assistant who, according to sources, was called into The Big Man's office before a road game, who was then told by Saban (via Sexton) which head coaching job he would be taking.
Despite the turbulence in the moment, college football's version of Taylor Swift and the Rolling Stones made sweet music together. Kiffin brought a necessary evolution to Tuscaloosa, directly leading to the 2015 national title and setting the stage for the Tide to win again in 2017 and '20 (even if Kiffin may have cost them '16).
"His career is amazing, and I'm just blessed for the opportunity that he gave me," Kiffin said this summer. "I wouldn't be here today without him. He took a chance on me and really opened a lot of doors from there, and I was able to meet a lot of amazing people, players, coaches throughout those three years. Really grateful for him."
“Lane did a fantastic job when he was here,” Saban said ahead of what turned out to be his final game against Kiffin last September. “We kind of went from old school ball to modern day ball I want to call it, in terms of doing some things with RPOs and advantage throws and really sort of set us off for the future of what we do on offense and what we’ve been able to do on offense.”