TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Lane Kiffin weaved through a crowd of players and coaches at midfield after the game. That familiar visor atop his head, he smiled and shook hands with a few people, barely noticing the cameras that fixed on Nick Saban, Amari Cooper and Blake Sims.

Kiffin patted a couple of his offensive linemen on the butt, circled around the media frenzy and made a beeline toward the locker room.

No one noticed.

Lane Kiffin has played his hand well at Alabama. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

The man who orchestrated one of the most impressive offensive games in recent memory at Alabama exited the field to little applause. After being labeled a genius for the way he carved up Florida’s defense for the most yards it has ever allowed (645), no one asked him how he did it. No one could. The former media lightning rod wasn’t allowed to speak on the record as offensive coordinator, per Alabama policy.

In that silence, Kiffin shined.

Finally, his ability as a coach did the talking.

On the first play from scrimmage, Kiffin ordered an empty set with four receivers and running back Kenyan Drake split out wide to the right. Florida thought it had the situation handled -- until the snap. The defense slid left toward the tunnel screen set up for Cooper, Drake’s man cheated that way and got turned completely around. There was no safety help over the top. It was too easy.

One play. Eighty-seven yards. Six points.

When’s the last time anyone saw Alabama come out swinging like that?

Kiffin insisted he wouldn’t overhaul the offense.

In his only time speaking with the media at the start of preseason camp, he said, “The last thing we would want to do is come in here and change a bunch of stuff.”

Very small tweaks were in order, he said. He wanted to make sure “we’re putting our great players in the best position.”

But in doing so, Kiffin has changed Alabama’s offense significantly.

Against Florida, he used every trick in the bag: screens, an unbalanced line, misdirection, even the Wildcat.

The most compelling change, however, was the tempo.

Saban, who famously asked of the no-huddle, “Is this what we want football to be?” has decided that, yes, up-tempo is the way to go.

But it’s paying off for reasons you might not expect.

By not huddling, Alabama isn’t necessarily wearing out the defense or even getting it out of position. Rather, it’s buying Kiffin time.

From the sideline, Kiffin has become an extension of the quarterback. Instead of asking Sims to make all the presnap reads, Kiffin stands behind the line of scrimmage and surveys the situation. With enough time on the clock, he can tell Sims to audible out of a bad play.

The result: Sims, who once played running back and wide receiver, is suddenly a playmaker at quarterback. The senior nearly broke Alabama’s single-game passing record with 445 yards and four touchdowns against Florida.

“Kiffin being on the sideline helps him put his hands directly on the offense,” said Ken Mastrole, Sims’ QB coach away from Alabama. “It makes sure the coordination and the tempo and fluidity is there from the playcalling to the execution. It’s a very good touch because Blake has someone to go to.”

It seemed like an abstract idea, getting the ball to players in a position to succeed, but that’s what Kiffin said he wanted to do.

Against Florida, we saw how.

Coming into the game, the matchup of Cooper and Vernon Hargreaves III was all anyone wanted to talk about. Cooper, arguably the best receiver in the game, would be going up against Hargreaves, possibly the best cornerback in the country. The prevailing thought was that the two would cancel each other out and Sims would have to throw more to his other receivers.

But Kiffin simply moved Cooper from the Z or X receiver position, furthest from the line of scrimmage, into the slot. Hargreaves, who plays the field or boundary corner, didn’t move along with him. Cooper was instead left against a nickelback or linebacker. The matchup went from a toss-up to a beatdown, as 150 of Cooper’s 201 yards and two of his three touchdowns came when he wasn’t in a clear one-on-one matchup with Hargreaves.

“He takes advantage of matchups,” Cooper said of Kiffin after the game. “He knows exactly what he’s doing.”

Kiffin wasn’t the best head coach. He didn’t excel in dealing with the media or managing all the moving parts of a program.

But take away those responsibilities and put a chalkboard in front of him and Kiffin shines.

Lane Kiffin never seems to have managed the task of head coach as well as he has offensive assistant. Chris Williams/Icon SMI

As Saban has said, “All his issues come from something we’re not asking him to do.”

What Saban is asking of Kiffin is simple. He’s still on the field, a head coach of the offense in a sense, but after the final whistle blows, he’s almost nowhere to be seen. He’s recognizable, certainly, but when the cameras come on and the postgame chatter begins, it’s not Kiffin making headlines.

“He’s been huge,” said offensive tackle Austin Shepherd. “I literally just told him, ‘You really can call plays.’ ... He just knows when to do it. He knows when to go fast and when to just get everyone to regroup. It’s awesome.”

It’s early, but the Kiffin-Saban marriage has been a happy one. By no longer being the center of attention, Kiffin is back to doing the things that made him such a hot coaching commodity in the first place.

Finally, we’re seeing the Kiffin who could coach X's and O's with anyone.

Finally, we’re seeing the Kiffin who’s best walking around the fray instead of engaging in it.