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ARCHIVED PHOTO-Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin speaks during the Chick-fil-A Bowl coaches luncheon Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009 in Atlanta. Tennessee will face Virginia Tech at the 2009 Chick-fil-A Bowl. (AP Photo/Gregory Smith)

-- Doug Nussmeier walked into a ballroom inside the New Orleans Downtown Marriott at the Convention Center last month, sat behind a table and fielded questions for roughly 15 minutes. He offered a quick "Thank you" and "goodbye" before exiting with a team of Alabama officials.

In his two years as Alabama's offensive coordinator, it was just the fourth such time he went through such an experience. Outside of the barking commands Nussmeier gave his quarterbacks and receivers during open periods of practice, that was all that was heard from him by outsiders during two seasons in which Alabama put up some of its best offensive numbers in program history.

That's by design, of course. And it wasn't Nussmeier's doing, either.

No, not even Lane Kiffin, who was , is a big enough of a personality to disrupt Nick Saban's "one voice" approach, which not only keeps his assistants and coordinators away from interviews, but also limits their chances of inviting "clutter" inside the walls of his program.

Barring a change of plans, Kiffin won't meet with the media until August.

So, while Kiffin's shortcomings as a head coach -- and there were a few -- are easy headline fodder, they're largely irrelevant to his current assignment: Improve and innovate Alabama's offensive attack while maintaining the core principles and philosophies that Saban values.

Also, identify, groom and develop Alabama's quarterback of the future. Right away, that's a task none of Saban's previous three offensive coordinators had to accomplish in their first season.

Deciding who and how to credit or blame when a particular unit on a football team performs well or poorly is always tricky. Great players can make average coaches look like masterminds. Average or below-average talent can humble the best coaches.

Kiffin was certainly blessed with talent-rich rosters in his stints as offensive coordinator and head coach at USC. He also coached the Oakland Raiders when Josh McCown and Daunte Culpepper were the starting quarterbacks, Justin Fargas was the running back and No. 1 pick JaMarcus Russell was dubbed the future of the franchise.

At Alabama, the scenario will be much more similar to USC than any other stop in his career, but the lack of a clear-cut starting quarterback will initially challenge him in ways he might remember from some of his other jobs.

The last time Kiffin was able to exclusively focus on offensive play-calling and quarterback development, Saban was still in the NFL.

It was 2006, his second and final season as USC's co-offensive coordinator alongside Steve Sarkisian before landing the head coach position with the Oakland Raiders. John David Booty was his quarterback. The Trojans ultimately led the Pac-10 in passing offense (263.85 yards per game) and boasted two receivers (Steve Smith and Dwayne Jarrett) who cleared 1,000 receiving yards.

With bigger names, the numbers were even bigger in 2005.

Matt Leinart threw for 3,815 yards, Heisman trophy winner Reggie Bush ran for 1,740 and Jarrett and Smith combined for more than 2,000 in an offense that averaged more than 49 points per game. Leinart won the Heisman one year earlier when Kiffin was the passing game coordinator beneath the renowned Norm Chow.

Maximizing production from his top playmakers remained a trademark of Kiffin's offenses even when he moved into his head coaching roles.

One year before his arrival at Tennessee, the Vols ranked 88th in the nation in rushing offense, 107th in passing offense and 115th in total offense. With the same quarterback (Jonathan Crompton) and an emerging running back (Montario Hardesty), the Vols moved up 34 spots in rushing, 61 in passing and 55 in total.

Perhaps most importantly, Kiffin and offensive coordinator Jim Chaney stuck with Crompton, who split time with another quarterback during his junior season, despite a rough start to his senior season. Crompton, who would later become a fifth-round NFL Draft selection, threw seven interceptions in his first three games, but bounced back with 14 touchdowns and four interceptions in the final seven.

No team put up more yards (339) against Alabama than Tennessee did in 2009.

In Kiffin's second run at USC, quarterback Matt Barkley was a star in 2011 (3,528 yards, 39 TDs, 7 INTs) but struggled during a 2012 season (3,273 yards, 36 TDs, 15 INTs) that saw the Trojans open as a preseason No. 1 but finish 7-6. Much like his days as offensive coordinator, the passing game funneled through two star receivers, as Robert Woods and Marqise Lee each cleared 1,000 yards and double-digit touchdowns in 2011 and Lee put up more than 1,700 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2012.

, Kiffin is described as a "student of the West Coast offense," which was designed by the legendary Bill Walsh. His roots, according to Brown, spawned from hours in the film room with Jon Gruden during Gruden's stint as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Kiffin ultimately meshed those ideas with what was already in place at USC under Chow.

Over the past few years, Kiffin's offenses have picked up some no-huddle, uptempo tendencies common with many Pac-12 teams while maintaining pro-style roots, Brown told on Friday.

That could explain why Kiffin was viewed as such an attractive candidate to Saban, who has made it no secret that he's at least interested in picking up the pace on offense so long as he can maintain a trademark, dominant running game that can drain clock at the end of a win.

"There's some tremendous advantages to it," Saban said in September. "The only reason we haven't done it to this point is we've played pretty well without doing it and our players have played better without doing it.

"I think the time is coming where we'll probably do it, too."

If 2014 is the time, Kiffin will be the one responsible for making it happen.

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