LOS ANGELES >> Clay Helton knew the sound.

Helton was watching film of a game between Alabama and Florida from 2014 when he caught Lane Kiffin hurrying along the sideline to get the attention of quarterback Blake Sims.

The CBS broadcast picked up Kiffin’s whistle. He spotted a favorable matchup.

Once Kenyan Drake had been motioned out of the backfield toward the sideline, a linebacker followed the running back.

Florida, evidently, was in man coverage. Kiffin wanted to tweak the Crimson Tide’s first play.

Drake would run “sluggo,” a route that starts out as a slant before the player cuts up the sideline.

It was a quick strike for an 87-yard touchdown.

“He’s able to find ways to get his best players the ball,” Helton said.

That Saturday afternoon, it was Drake.

“He kind of uses football as basketball,” Sims said. “Whoever has the hot hand is who he gets the ball to.”

An obvious subplot of the season opener between USC and Alabama on Saturday is the presence of Kiffin, who has reestablished himself for his aptitude as an offensive coordinator with the Crimson Tide after an uneven three-plus-season stretch with the Trojans.

The 41-year-old assistant followed Pete Carroll after he returned to the NFL in 2010 and led the Trojans through the early seasons of NCAA sanctions.

Four USC assistant coaches were first hired by Kiffin, along with Helton, who was on his initial staff as the quarterbacks coach.

But after a 3-2 start in 2013, including a final 62-41 rout at Arizona State, former Athletic Director Pat Haden fired Kiffin when the team arrived at its LAX terminal.

No hard feelings linger, they insist.

“He’s not thinking about Southern Cal,” said Monte Kiffin, Lane’s father, who also ran the defense from 2010-12. “You gotta move on. He moved on from that a couple years ago.”

John Baxter, USC’s special teams coordinator who first met Kiffin in the late 1990s while on the same staff at Fresno State, said it would not be different than pickup hoops.

“We play noon basketball over here,” Baxter said, “and whoever shows up, I’m going to try to beat him, you know?”

Almost three years have passed. Only 19 players are left on USC’s roster who played for Kiffin.

Kiffin, who has already seen two college head coaching stints and one with the NFL’s Oakland Raiders when he was 32, has looked to rebuild his career as the offensive coordinator under Nick Saban, whose tenure at Alabama has seen four national championships in seven seasons.

The polarizing image fades. Kiffin is mostly out of the limelight with attention centered on Saban. He rarely speaks with reporters due to a school policy that limits media appearances for assistant coaches to one press conference before the season and one before the postseason.

“Because of all the stuff that’s happened and some of the distractions and some of the things he kind of stirs up, people lose sight of the fact that he’s an excellent, excellent playcaller and an excellent offensive coordinator,” said former USC quarterback Matt Leinart, now a studio analyst at Fox Sports 1.

He has staked that reputation since his departure from USC.

When he arrived at Alabama in 2014, most players cared little about Kiffin’s rocky run with the Trojans and one-year stint at Tennessee.

They knew him as the director of the star-studded USC offense of 2005 led by Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush.

“Everybody wanted to be Reggie Bush when they came to college,” Sims said. “So just being able to be coached by somebody who coached Reggie Bush … that’s just a blessing.”

The two seasons Kiffin spent in Tuscaloosa has seen two notable feats.

He has worked with inexperienced quarterbacks who did not start until their senior seasons, Sims in 2014 and Coker in 2015.

“He does a great job of making those guys field generals,” Helton said.

He has introduced no-huddle concepts into Alabama’s offense, a significant development as Saban had previously been averse to the up-tempo, spread system that was permeating college football.

The touchups worked.

Alabama finished on a high note as it ran toward the national title last season. The Crimson Tide’s offense averaged 6.3 yards per play in the final six games of the season and scored a combined 83 points in its two playoff games.

Kiffin ran with his top playmakers, giving Heisman Trophy winning running back Derrick Henry 395 carries, the most in the Football Bowl Subdivision and leaning on freshman receiver Calvin Ridley, who had 89 catches.

“He’s able to really diagnose the strengths of each individual on his team and use that strength,” Helton said.

It did not land Kiffin another head coaching opportunity, but many people involved in the sport suggest it is inevitable.

“If he keeps winning games and winning national championships, I think he’ll have a big time opportunity,” said Eric Kiesau, who was a consultant at Alabama last year and was Kiffin’s roommate. “I think being at Alabama is really good for him. People are going to want to hire guys who have been involved in Alabama and Nick Saban.”

Two recent examples include Georgia coach Kirby Smart, Saban’s former defensive coordinator, and Florida Jim McElwain, Saban’s offensive coordinator before he was Colorado State’s headman.

Former Fresno State coach Pat Hill, who first hired Kiffin as a graduate assistant, expects he might see more success too.

“It’s different when you get the wheel to yourself, and I truly believe he’s probably learned a lot from those experiences,” Hill said. “I don’t know if there was anyone on those staffs who helped him through those tough times.”

His experience working with Saban will pay off, Monte said. No one is more detailed. No one embodies the current CEO approach of leading a football program more than Saban.

But Monte stressed that Lane shouldn’t fret about waiting to be a head coach.

“Take it one year at a time,” Monte said. “If it happens, it happens.”

For Lane, there is a game of note on Saturday, first.

“I’m sure he’s going to be looking forward to it,” Monte said.