NEW ORLEANS -- There's a simplicity to life as an offensive coordinator and Lane Kiffin likes it.

The focus is narrow in his job at Alabama after eight years as a head coach both in the NFL and college football. As he finishes his first season as an assistant under Nick Saban, Kiffin said he plans to return for 2015.

"Yes, definitely," Kiffin said Monday in his first interview since August. "I think that we still have a lot of stuff that we can do better. Working with a new quarterback, that will be exciting. To me, the excitement of the unknown when you have the quarterback, to see if we can do this again, if we can perform really well and obviously coach has recruited very well year in and year out.

"Who are going to be the next guys up because we're going to lose the all-time leading receiver (Amari Cooper) in the history of the school and what may be after this game, the all-time leading rusher (T.J. Yeldon) in the history of the school. I think he's getting ready to break that and quarterback (Blake Sims) whose had the most productive year in the history of the school and we're going to lose them all at the same time."

Kiffin was fired from two of his last three head coaching gigs, first with the Oakland Raiders in 2008, then at his dream job with USC last fall.

Kiffin said the whole experience has been humbling and he's not racing to get back to a head job.

"No it's not like one of those things I have to go prove because they were wrong or they shouldn't have fired me or any of that stuff. You can't control that so I don't sit around and think about that head job or when I'm going to get it or if I should. I can't control that. All I can control is focusing on today and the players and the offense. That's all that we've done."

Kiffin signed a three-year contract earlier this year worth $680,000 for the first two seasons and $714,000 for Year 3.