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Lane Kiffin alleviates concerns about Alabama’s unsettled QB situation

By Jake Wimberly

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The Alabama Crimson Tide have an unsettled quarterback situation but with offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin around, the passing game should continue to flourish no matter who is under center.

We’ve heard the jokes about Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin for years now. Be it his one year stint at Tennessee, his inability to succeed in the NFL, or the USC debacle – more people love to rail on Kiffin than adore him.

Just last year, when Alabama head football coach Nick Saban hired Kiffin, there was tons of speculation about whether Kiffin and Saban could co-exist, and how it appeared the cons outweighed the pros.

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But 12 wins, an SEC championship and a College Football Playoff berth later, Saban looks like genius once again. After what we saw Kiffin do with Blake Sims in 2014, Alabama fans should rest assure there will be no drop-off in quarterback play in 2015.

Alabama is already the most efficient passing team in the SEC and have been over the last seven years. For all the talk of Alabama recruiting and defense, the Tide have been extremely accurate, calculated and efficient in the passing game under Saban.

Here we are now just weeks away from the season opener and many media outlets are again questioning Alabama’s quarterback situation and if they’ll be able to remain effective in the passing game.

Based on Kiffin’s track record, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt the answer is, yes.  It doesn’t matter if it’s Jake Coker, David Cornwell or another signal caller, because Kiffin will find a way to move the football and do it effectively.

Despite all the criticism, all the hate and all the jokes, a head coach Kiffin may not be, but an offensive genius he is.

In a time when the spread offense now reigns supreme, Kiffin does it in a Bill Walsh kind of way. Many pundits proclaim Sims wouldn’t had been as nearly successful had he not had Amari Cooper to throw to and that is a valid point. But go back and look at how well Kiffin disguised Cooper in the offense and gave Sims options in the passing game. That is a tribute to Kiffin and the football mind he has.

While the Sims to Cooper combination is a small sample size in discussing Kiffin, his prior years as a head coach and play caller are not. Over the last six years, Kiffin has taken four different quarterbacks at three different schools and had a great deal of production.

From Sims to Matt Barkley at USC to Jonathan Crompton at Tennessee, Kiffin has taken what he was given and made the most of it. His ability to dissect defenses and understand the tools he has at his disposal may be better than anyone in college football.

When your quarterbacks complete over 60 percent of their passes, that goes a long way to having an effective passing game and Kiffin has shown to get that out of his quarterbacks.

Crompton had the lowest completion percentage of the bunch, but Kiffin helped bring Crompton’s completion percentage up by 10 percent and improved his touchdown to interception ratio drastically – in just one year.

While fans and media alike will debate until kickoff who will be under center for Alabama, you can rest assured regardless of whom that might be, Kiffin has spent countless hours dissecting his quarterbacks, his personnel and the team he will be playing.

Kiffin is a mad scientist behind the offensive headset and will prove that once again with Alabama’s quarterbacks in 2015.

Next: Jake Coker and the 15 QB's with the most to prove in 2015

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