Suttles: Lane Kiffin attempting to take Scott Cochran, other staff from Alabama

Aaron Suttles is reporting that Lane Kiffin comes to Ole Miss with vengeance on his mind toward Nick Saban, stemming from his unceremonious departure during the 2016 playoffs. Suttles writes for the Athletic and a subscription is required, but here is a key excerpt from his article:

Kiffin is attempting to take as many current, former and potential Alabama coaches as he can with him to Oxford. In his biggest coup attempt, Kiffin offered Alabama strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran an on-the-field coaching position to try to steal him from Saban, multiple people close to the Alabama program told The Athletic. That speaks to a couple of things, not the least of which is how valuable Cochran, the 40-year-old strength coach, has made himself to Saban and to the Crimson Tide. Cochran is popular with the players and with recruits and has become a large part of Alabama football. Those same people said Kiffin also has interest in Alabama secondary coach Karl Scott, former Alabama defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi and former Alabama defensive line coach Bo Davis, among others.

It’s the opening salvo for Kiffin in his assault on Saban’s program.

Honestly, I’m not sure that I’m buying this particular angle considering the respect that Kiffin has shown Saban publicly. It could well be that Kiffin is just shooting for the stars when building his staff and knows that Alabama has some great candidates. The timing of this news is hilarious, the day after HBO’s documentary in which Saban specifically addressed former assistants attempting to dismantle his program.

The Lane Kiffin era at Ole Miss is going to be stupid fun, folks.

Roll Tide.