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Nick Saban responds to Lane Kiffin’s comments regarding Alabama’s defensive coordinator
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Nick Saban has dismissed the claim that he changed defensive coordinator assignments.
Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin caused a stir Sunday when he told reporters that Travaris Robinson appeared to be calling the defense, not Kevin Steele. In his Monday press conference, Saban told reporters that Steele is the team’s defensive coordinator. Saban said the only change has been with regard to how signals are relayed to players.
“Kevin Steele is the defensive coordinator,” Saban said. “He has all the defensive coordinator responsibilities. The only thing that we tried to improve on from an administrative standpoint was gameday administration of getting the signals in quicker. So that’s the only thing that we worked on together as a staff. The whole staff made a contribution to it and I think it was a lot better in this game than it was in the Texas game.”
Kiffin told reporters Sunday that his staff’s film evaluations led them to believe Robinson was the defensive play-caller.
“We’ve been against Kevin a number of times. Worked with him at Alabama and against him at Auburn and LSU. There seems like there’s been a change there. I don’t know what happened after the Texas game, but our guys watching the TV copy and schematically in this last game, certainly seems like T-Rob’s now calling the defense. We played him before at South Carolina, so we’re preparing accordingly for him calling the defense. He’s done a good job, too, and they’ve got really good players.”
Robinson has coordinator experience from his time at South Carolina (2016-to-2020) on the staff of former Saban assistant Will Muschamp. He joined the Alabama staff ahead of the 2022 season as cornerbacks coach after 1 year with the Miami Hurricanes.
Steele has a long history of working with Saban on and off over the years, dating back to 2007. Steele was Miami’s defensive coordinator for 2022 before leaving to take the same position with the Crimson Tide.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
