Nick Saban is impressed with the job his former offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin has done as the head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels — particularly in the transfer portal department.
Kiffin has been dubbed as the “Portal King” — bringing in several big-name transfers during his time with the Rebels program.
Saban praised Kiffin’s ability to build a high-quality roster seemingly overnight.
“I think it creates a lot of parity relative to how fast you can rebuild a team,” the Alabama head coach said during a press conference on Wednesday.
“I think you could go through all the teams that we play and they have significant players that have come in from the transfer portal,” he added. “And Ole Miss certainly has significant players. LSU had significant players last week that made their team better. It’s almost like can you only build your team in the draft or is there such a thing as free agency now in college football? For years, NFL teams used both of those things to help build their teams, and I think some teams are doing that. Some teams probably need to do it more than others.”
Kiffin landed 17 transfers prior to the 2022 season, including five-star players Zach Evans and Jaxson Dart.
The one-loss Rebels earned a No. 11 spot in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings. Two-loss Alabama holds the No. 9 spot.
Saban and Kiffin will face off in a highly-anticipated SEC matchup this weekend in Oxford.