USA TODAY Sports
For the past three years, Lane Kiffin has accepted the sideline humiliations and the long hours demanded by Alabama coach Nick Saban because he believed it would be his ticket back to the big time.
It was supposed to be a well-paid rehabilitation stint for the former Southern California coach, whose boy wonder reputation was left in tatters midway through the 2013 season when Pat Haden fired him on the tarmac after the Trojans returned from a 62-41 loss at Arizona State. Kiffin, with a national title under his belt and his offensive acumen celebrated once again, would ride the Alabama wave right into another top-level head coaching job and reclaim a career that once seemed headed toward superstardom.