Nick Saban's patience with the media wore thin Tuesday after the Alabama coach was repeatedly asked about his decision to part ways with offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin a week before the national championship game.
"We made a statement about this yesterday and really don't have much else to say about it," Saban said during a teleconference after he was asked about Steve Sarkisian replacing Kiffin, who is moving on to his job as FAU's new head coach.
When asked again about the situation, Saban tried to shift the focus to the No. 1 Crimson Tide's national title game opponent: No. 2 Clemson.
"Our coaches are working hard to try to put the best game plan we can together to play against a very good Clemson defense, and we're in the planning stages right now," he added. "I don't know why you all keep asking me what changes we're going to make.
"[Clemson coach] Dabo [Swinney] is a good friend of mine; maybe I'll just call him up and tell him what we're going to do."
Kiffin was hired by FAU on Dec. 12, but Saban opted to keep him on the Alabama staff until the end of the season.
Saban did elaborate a bit on why he didn't make this move before the team's showdown with No. 4 Washington in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl last week.
"It's difficult sometimes when you're in a situation when you have a new opportunity and a new job, and we mutually agreed that in the best interest of everyone that this would be the best thing for us to do relative to the experience that we had in preparation for Washington and playing in the game," Saban said.
"I try to make the decisions based on what's best for helping our players be successful, and at the time there was no anticipation that _ or thought that there would be any kind of problem relative to managing having two jobs at once. And when we sort of saw that that was, and agreed that that was a little bit of a tough thing, then we decided to move in a different direction."
Saban said Kiffin would not be on the field or in the coaches' box during the title game.
"It's really not even possible from a legal standpoint for him to do those things," Saban said, referring to NCAA restrictions. "That's not something that we're interested in pursuing."
But when pressed again about the decision, Saban snapped.
"We did what we did for the reasons that I've stated many, many times before, and there's really nothing else to talk about," he said. "So there's no why, there's no if, there's no but. It just is what it is. The statement says what it is. We're moving forward, so let's talk about the game."
