Alabama Football G13 vs Missouri SEC Championship 2014 - Head coaches media day

Alabama head coach Nick Saban and Alabama offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Lane Kiffin chat as Alabama walks through a warmup practice the day before the Alabama vs. Missouri SEC championship football game.

(Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- It's been four months since Lane Kiffin's only public comments since arriving at Alabama, but Alabama's high-profile offensive coordinator spoke twice Tuesday.

He had a few zingers in his speech at the Broyles Award ceremony in Little Rock. Before that, he did a 10-minute interview with local 103.7-FM radio on a number of topics.

Here's a few of the highlights from Kiffin's first true interview in months.

On Amari Cooper:

"I don't have to worry about him coming back next year. That's pretty much done." (Cooper, a junior, is projected to be a top-10 draft pick)

On Jacob Coker getting loose after Blake Sims three interceptions in the Iron Bowl:

"After Coker warmed up, I think he went 17 for 22 for four touchdowns after that point (it was actually 12 of last 13). We made a joke in the quarterback room, we have it all figured out. If Blake screws up, no matter what, we start warming up Coker and we'll be good."

Coming in for Sugar Bowl practice:

"I wasn't a consultant, he just ... it was after their Auburn loss, so they had like a month to prepare for the Sugar Bowl. He brought me in for eight days and said hey, just kind of hang out, be around and see what you think. It wasn't anything about being employed there, that's how he is. Everybody is saying 'What the heck is Lane Kiffin going to say to Nick Saban' and I was saying the same thing. But that just shows you how he is. He's always trying to get better.

"So, each night, we'd kinda meet for 10 minutes and see what I saw in practice and film study. It was really neat that he allowed me to do that and then a couple weeks later, the job became available and he brought me out for a formal interview and it's been great. I couldn't be more appreciative of him for doing that. It wasn't easy for him to do. He took a lot of criticism for it. So I'm really proud it work out, for him especially because he took a lot of heat for that."

On his previous relationship with Saban:

"Just really at SEC meetings when I was the head coach at Tennessee and then we played them that year down here. I had about a year ago, after our bad year at Tennessee, I just wanted to talk to somebody about some different things and so I actually snuck into Tuscaloosa with nobody knowing and spent three hours with him at his house one night and just had a list of questions about from game management, players, coaches all the stuff you want. People would pay millions probably for those three hours with him. It was really neat, and here we are now."

On being an assistant instead of worrying about the whole program:

"It's seven years since I've done that and it's been refreshing just to be able to focus on the ball side, Xs and Os and player development, player communication. I guess I didn't realize how much, as the head coach, you cannot do that if you run this side of the ball. Even coach Saban doesn't call the defense. Coach Smart calls the defense. There was so much time that I put into that.

One of the million things I feel I was spending more time in player development, even in the game, because as the head coach, you can't do what I do now. I sit with Blake Sims, Amari Cooper the entire game when the defense is out there and we don't get up until we have the ball going over everything, adjustments, things we do. It's been fun to be able to do that again, also to learn from coach Saban. He's just unbelievable.

"People have this perception of who he is and he's all football and everything. This guy gives more to the university than I could ever imagine doing. The Friday before the Iron Bowl, he's meeting with women's tennis recruits to help out the tennis program. I'm looking at the schedule saying this is amazing, but he is non-stop, every day, University of Alabama."

On his perception in the media versus how he really is:

"Well I used to get that a lot and my answer is I'm not really worried about my perception if I've never met somebody or I've never been around them because I can't control that. I don't want to sit here and read some article that some guy writes on the other side of the country who's never met me because what good does that do to worry about that? They told me they were joking, a guy at ESPN said it doesn't matter it is, we're just told to make sure your name is in it because it's going to get hits, it's going to get read whether it's true or not."

On Alabama's running backs:

"The amazing thing is, the most unique of all of them, Kenyan Drake, was injured in that Ole Miss game and is out for the year. He was kind of the Reggie Bush factor - the first play of the Florida game we threw to him as a wide receiver (for an 87-yard touchdown). The other guys are phenomenal running backs, but don't do the other stuff that Kenyan did, but it will be exciting to get him back next year. And I always, I shouldn't do it, but I think sometimes, imagine if we still had him. It would be such a mismatch issue."

Listen to the full interview on the 103.7 website.