Lane Kiffin enters his first season as LSU head coach this fall. However, there was a time that Kiffin was lobbying to take the Alabama job, according to Paul Finebaum.

When Nick Saban retired after the 2023 season, Finebaum confirmed that Kiffin’s interest was there. Given his past with Saban and Alabama as its offensive coordinator, how close was Kiffin to landing the job?

“Dan Lanning was (the favorite) within 10 seconds of Nick Saban’s retirement announcement,” Finebaum said on his show on Wednesday. “Dan Lanning was the betting favorite. By the next day, he was out of it because Dan landing didn’t want the job. The guy that did want the job was Lane Kiffin.

“He would have crawled to Tuscaloosa, but Greg Byrne and others — I’m guessing Sabin was probably behind this as well. I guarantee that Nick Saban did not encourage Greg Byrne to hire Lane Kiffin at Alabama.”

Instead, the Crimson Tide went with then-Washington coach Kalen DeBoer who most recently led Alabama to a College Football Playoff appearance in his second season with the program. Kiffin, meanwhile, had been the coach at Ole Miss before Saban retired and after DeBoer was hired.

Kiffin was at Ole Miss from 2020-2025, and while the stars didn’t align for a return to Tuscaloosa, the result is that Kiffin will now lead one of their biggest SEC rivals for the foreseeable future. Still, Finebaum notes Kiffin took major steps in trying to secure the Alabama job when it was available.

“I can absolutely confirm that Lane Kiffin was calling everyone imaginable to get him in the door,” Finebaum said. “Absolute fact.”

There were some rumors that DeBoer could have been on his way out of Alabama with the Michigan job opening. However, Finebaum cited the Crimson Tide’s CFP win over Oklahoma as the reason why there wasn’t a coaching change this offseason. Michigan went on to hire Kyle Whittingham from Utah.

If DeBoer had moved on — the same offseason when Kiffin made the jump from Ole Miss to LSU — it’s unclear whether he would have had the same interest. Regardless, Kiffin has a chance to lead the Tigers in a matchup against the Crimson Tide during the first weekend of November in Death Valley.

All eyes will be on the late-season SEC matchup. All signs points toward the matchup having CFP implications three weeks before the end of the regular season.