NEW ORLEANS — The black SUV rolled up to the hotel on the banks of the Warehouse District, a row of television cameras three deep leading the circus through the entry and into the madness.
Never has a grunt on the ground looked so presidential.
“OK,” Lane Kiffin said softly as he walked into the one thing he has been able to avoid since he was fired at USC and hired at Alabama and helped this Tide team do things on offense no one imagined it could do with a forgotten fifth-year quarterback.
It was time to face the demons — or in this instance, the media. It took about five minutes before the Kiffin of old showed up, looking at a television bobblehead after yet another leading question and proclaiming, “that’s the third question you’ve set me up with. You’re just trying to get me on SportsCenter.”
And away it went.
Say this much for Kiffin: very few coaches in the game can work a room with such deft skill and engaging wit. Somehow, after all that has transpired for the coach who has seemingly been gifted it all — and blew it all — it’s easy to not only root for him, but to actually feel some semblance of empathy.
Multiple times during two separate press conferences, Kiffin spoke about “my many mistakes” as a head coach. He talked about the humbling and empty feeling of being fired, and “the phone not ringing.”
“It gives you a chance to step back and look at things differently,” he said.
But there’s no avoiding this:
• An NFL coach at 31 with the Raiders, and fired four games into his second season. His owner, Al Davis, called Kiffin a “pathological liar.”
• The then-youngest head coach in college football at fading SEC power Tennessee, a 32-year-old NFL washout given the job over many more qualified coaches. He finished 7-6 in one season, brought numerous secondary NCAA violations to Knoxville and left after 14 months for his "dream job."
• Hired to coach one of the top three jobs in college football at USC, despite a career coaching record of 12-21 and a brief history of controversy on and off the field. Less than four years later, he was fired at the airport after a game, before getting on the team bus to go back to campus.
Somehow, some way, this is the man Nick Saban — the most meticulous, drama-free, detail-oriented coach in the game — decided would be the best fit for his offense that struggled at the end of 2013 and was swirling in circles while the game’s offenses were rapidly evolving.
Wouldn’t you know it, 13 games later, Alabama is the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff and its offense has gone from plodding to up-tempo — the very thing Saban complained about last year — and Kiffin has become whole once again.
When asked what he learned from Saban, Kiffin said, “A list that would go on forever. To be able to sit every day and learn from someone like him, I would do it for free. I would pay him for it.”
When asked if Saban learned anything from him, an obvious reference to Kiffin’s masterful job of developing quarterback Blake Sims and moving the Tide offense into the 21st Century, Kiffin said, “No. I was a fired coach. I was unemployed.”
These are the moments when it looks like maybe, just maybe, Kiffin has learned. Despite all the nonsense of years past; despite the meteoric rise and the spectacular failures, Kiffin might just be ready to be a head coach again.
He says he'll coach at Alabama next year and hasn't even thought about his future as a head coach. Lesson No. 1 from Saban: your world is right now, not months or years from now.
“Lane has made an impact on what we do across the board,” Saban said.
As much as Kiffin downplays his importance to the team (another smart move), players and coaches say the offense wouldn’t be close to what it is now without Kiffin. Specifically, Sims — who Saban admitted he “never thought he would play quarterback here” — growing from a career backup to setting Alabama single-season passing records.
This is what Kiffin does best: he teaches. As crazy as that sounds — because, how can you not watch him and hear him and think differently? — he relates to quarterbacks, and knows quarterbacks, as well as anyone in the game.
He feuded with Raiders management about taking JaMarcus Russell with the No. 1 overall pick. Davis picked Russell anyway, and Russell became one of the biggest draft flops in NFL history.
He walked into Tennessee and made an NFL draft pick out of career backup Jonathan Crompton, developed Matt Barkley into an elite college quarterback at USC and made Sims the most valuable player in the SEC.
And despite what Kiffin said here Monday, he’s not a church mouse when it comes to Alabama coaching meetings.
“I’ll say this, he’s not afraid to speak his mind,” said Tide defensive coordinator Kirby Smart. “That or he hasn’t learned yet.”
This is Kiffin in a nutshell. You’re getting a coach who knows offense and a guy who isn’t afraid to speak his mind. Sometimes — OK, a lot of times — it gets him in trouble.
The question for every administrator (or NFL owner) is this: has he learned to use what he has gleaned from three of football’s coaching giants — Saban, Pete Carroll (USC) and Tom Coughlin (NFL’s Jaguars) — and scale back what he initially thought was the way to go?
Earlier this year, when Alabama traveled to Knoxville to play rival Tennessee, Kiffin got off the team bus and was heckled by Vols fans still furious with how he bolted and left scorched earth behind.
Before the game, Kiffin said Saban looked at him in wonderment and asked, “how did I get higher on the most-hated list than him?”
How can you not root for a guy like that?