ATLANTA - Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin didn't speculate on 2017 after Saturday night's 54-16 hammering of Florida in the Southeastern Conference title game.
Kiffin did, however, guarantee that he would coach the Crimson Tide through their playoff run.
"Yes. If they'll have me," Kiffin said.
Kiffin has been mentioned as a possibility for the head-coaching vacancy at Houston, and there has been speculation that he will be leaving Tuscaloosa for the same role at LSU under coach Ed Orgeron. A media report out of New Orleans last week claimed that Saturday would be Kiffin's last game at Alabama.
Former Crimson Tide defensive coordinator Kirby Smart became Georgia's head coach after last year's SEC title game but worked under Nick Saban through Alabama's run to a fourth national championship in seven seasons. Saban said he has talked with Kiffin.
"He wants to be a head coach, and I want him to be a head coach," Saban said. "I want to help him get a head-coaching job."
Kiffin has been a head coach with the NFL's Oakland Raiders and in the major college ranks with Tennessee and Southern California. He was fired at USC five games into the 2013 season with a 28-15 record and was replaced on an interim basis by Orgeron.
Hired by Saban in January 2014, Kiffin has molded Blake Sims, Jake Coker and Jalen Hurts into quarterbacks who guided the Crimson Tide to league titles. Hurts on Saturday became the first true freshman to start an SEC title game, and Alabama became the first major college since World War II to win three consecutive league titles with three different quarterbacks.
"I'm happy to be here," Kiffin said. "Coach and I talked this week about what a great experience this has been having different quarterbacks and building it together, and this season is not over. People are talking about next year, but we've got a lot of work to do, because it really doesn't matter if you're seeded one, two, three or four.
"We've got to get ready to improve our guys."
Kiffin said, "I want to be wherever I am," when asked where he thought he would be next year, and he had an amusing response when asked if he's ever heard someone shout out, "Run the damn ball, Lane."
"You mean like the head coach?" Kiffin replied.
Memory lane
Before Saturday's kickoff, former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer, former Alabama coach Gene Stallings and former Florida coach Steve Spurrier reminisced about the birth of the league championship game. The matchup between East and West division champs came about in 1992, when the SEC expanded to 12 members with the additions of Arkansas and South Carolina.
Kramer said the creation of a league championship drew varied reactions from its coaches, several of whom figured it would be a deterrent to a national title. Alabama has since won five national championships, Florida three, LSU two, Auburn one and Tennessee one.
"I loved it," Spurrier said. "We needed one game to have one champ. We had co-champs in this league forever."
Said Kramer: "Pat Dye was the strongest against it, but there were others."
Kramer remembered the most difficult aspect to splitting the divisions being the placement of Auburn and Vanderbilt. From a geographical standpoint, Auburn is slightly east of Nashville, but the decision was made intentionally to put the Tigers in the West.
"I was concerned about having an Alabama-Auburn game two weeks in a row," Kramer said.
Hamilton likely done
Alabama junior inside linebacker Shaun Dion Hamilton had an interception in the first quarter but suffered a knee injury in the second quarter and did not play the rest of the game. Hamilton was replaced by fellow junior Rashaan Evans.
"He's probably going to be out for the year," Saban said. "He'll be missed, but we have a lot of confidence in Rashaan, and he did a good job for us today."
Tide tidbits
Alabama has won five of the last eight SEC titles for the West, which leads the East 14-11 in title games. Tide seniors have 50 career wins, matching Ohio State's 2015 class and Boise State's 2011 class for the most in major college history. Minkah Fitzpatrick set an Alabama record with his fourth career interception return for a touchdown, breaking the mark he shared with Antonio Langham, C.J. Mosley and Eddie Jackson. Alabama's defense wound up going 273 minutes and three seconds without allowing a touchdown.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.