“You’ve got to keep Lane away from the girls that are in college,” Saban said, according to one former coach. “Just keep him away from the sorority girls. Make sure they’ve graduated college or are working a job.”
It was as if the Alabama head coach always assumed the worst of Kiffin even when it was an innocent interaction in a staff meeting. That in turn, could create conflict with Kiffin, who couldn’t understand why his boss jumped on him so frequently and intensely. “You have an interaction that is a little bit more contentious than you would hope,” says one Alabama staffer, “and it creates more tension for the next potential event.”
Layla and the kids never made the move to Tuscaloosa, leaving Kiffin to go off the rails, frequenting Tuscaloosa-area bars. On at least one occasion, an Alabama staffer had to go to Innisfree Irish Pub to retrieve a golf cart Kiffin had left there the night before. “[Innisfree co-owner Derick] Purdy would call me and say, your boy Lane’s back in here asking where the hotties are,” says Josh Booty. “‘Can you introduce me to hotties?’” As one friend of Kiffin’s during that time put it, he was afraid Kiffin was going to “drink himself to death.” He was lonely without his family, and he was facing intense pressure working for a man he couldn’t understand. The stress was almost unbearable at times, and he looked for relief around town. With that came guilt and further strain from his family over his actions. “I’ve seen him on the floor crying like a goddamn baby,” the friend described, when Kiffin faced repercussions from mistakes that impacted his family. “And then I’ve seen him doing shit that’s like ‘you got to put your dick back in your pants.’”
