Lane Kiffin told the Washington Post that if he’d been offensive coordinator during the National Championship game last year, the Tide would have won the game.

In an interview with the Post, Kiffin said,

“It’s no disrespect to Steve. No matter who it was, you’ve been there all year long. You’ve been there for the quarterback. You’re all he knew. You were undefeated together. We’ve won (26) straight games together. You feel like, OK, it’s different. . . As great as Sark is, it’s just different. Again, if it had been 14 points either way … when it’s one play here or there, you think if those guys had the person they were used to, it would have made a difference.”

Kiffin spent three seasons at Alabama, helping the Tide secure one National Championship. He was offered the head coaching job at FAU in the final games of the 2016 season at Alabama. Originally, we had planned to coach along Saban during the championship but instead left for Florida.

Touching on what it was like to watch his team play the biggest game of their season he said, “It got really rough when you watched the game,” He said. “At first, the idea of, ‘OK, do your job. Focus on this one.’ But really, when you watched it, and because they lost, and it was so close…”

Alabama enters this season looking to gain their first win over Florida State Saturday. They are currently ranked number one.