Before Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian and LSU head coach Lane Kiffin were leading two of college football’s premier programs, they were two young assistants carpooling through Los Angeles traffic on their way to work.
In the years since, they’ve traveled similar roads, sometimes side by side and other times miles apart. They’ve worked together, competed against each other and taken over jobs the other left behind.
But no matter how many times their careers have diverged, they have always seemed to find their way back to one another. And in Tiger Stadium on Saturday night, they’ll cross paths once again.
Sarkisian and Kiffin’s mutual journeys began in 2001, when both joined then-head coach Pete Carroll’s staff at USC. Sarkisian worked as an offensive assistant with quarterbacks, while Kiffin was in his first full-time coaching job as tight ends coach.
Sarkisian left the Trojans in 2004 to coach quarterbacks for the Oakland Raiders in the NFL. But just a year later, he returned to Los Angeles, where the departure of previous offensive coordinator Norm Chow opened the door for the two to take on an even greater partnership as two young offensive assistants under Carroll.
Kiffin, serving as Chow’s replacement, called plays from the press box, and Sarkisian, the assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach, helped direct the offense from the sideline.
Together, they orchestrated one of college football’s most prolific offenses, leading the nation with 579.8 yards per game in 2005 while averaging 49.1 points, the second-highest mark behind — ironically — the Texas Longhorns.
It was that 2005 season when they first earned the moniker, “Sarkiffian.”
“We have a really unique relationship that goes back a long time,” Kiffin said on Monday. “Then just a really intertwined, strange thing of kind of growing up in those years and having the great offenses together.”
The first major fork came in 2007, when the Oakland Raiders sought their next young coaching prodigy and turned their attention to the two men, both in their early 30s.
The Raiders initially pursued Sarkisian for the head coaching job, with Kiffin serving as his offensive coordinator. But when Sarkisian withdrew, the Raiders turned to Kiffin, who accepted.
Sarkisian remained at USC until taking the Washington head coaching job in 2009. Kiffin returned to USC as head coach a year after, setting up the three meetings between the former colleagues. Kiffin won two of them.
But the relationship outlasted the competition — and eventually their jobs.
After USC infamously fired Kiffin in 2013, he traveled to Seattle, where Sarkisian was coaching, and stayed with him for several days. That December, Sarkisian took over the same USC job Kiffin had lost.
When Sarkisian faced a crisis of his own after USC fired him two years later amid concerns about alcohol misuse, he still found himself connected to Kiffin, who was Alabama’s then-offensive coordinator.
During the Crimson Tide’s College Football Playoff semifinal against Michigan State in December 2015, Sarkisian texted Kiffin suggestions for the second half.
Kiffin didn’t say whether he used them, but he was adamant about bringing Sarkisian onto his staff. They reunited when Sarkisian joined Alabama as an offensive assistant in 2016 before succeeding Kiffin when he left to become Florida Atlantic’s head coach.
Years later, the support would run in a different direction.
While coaching Ole Miss, Kiffin stopped drinking, a decision that he believed helped him reassess his priorities. Fast forward to this Monday, and Kiffin credited Sarkisian with playing an important role in that journey.
“On a personal level, a major change in my life was getting sober six years ago,” Kiffin said. “And he was a big part of that. I owe him a lot for that, and I’ll always be appreciative of that.”
Their friendship has remained a constant hallmark through their coaching tenures. Still, neither will be particularly interested in seeing the other succeed come Saturday.
After all, as Carroll taught Sarkisian, there’s a certain pride in defeating a friend.
“You love competing against your friends,” Sarkisian said on Monday. “There’s nothing more gratifying than beating your friends. I’m sure Lane feels the same way.”
