Kiffin says he’s happy at Alabama

Lane Kiffin paused before he walked off the turf Saturday night. Looking left, he sauntered toward the crowd and tossed his white Alabama visor to a young boy in the front row.

As he turned to step into the tunnel, another young fan yelled, “Don’t leave!”

If recent reports are true, Kiffin is scheduled for a head-coaching interview at Houston this week, and he might be considering a coordinator job in Baton Rouge as well.

“Our players joke about it. ‘Hey, it’s our last game together,’” Kiffin said following a blowout SEC championship game win against Florida. “We’ve got really loose, nice kids … We just have a lot of fun. We don’t really talk about it seriously like that.”

Friday, head coach Nick Saban said Kiffin, who flamed out at USC and with the NFL’s Oakland Raiders — and left his Tennessee gig after one season — was ready to be a head coach again.

But Kiffin brushed aside related questions after the win.

“I’m not worried about that,” he said. “I want to keep winning these next two games. It’d be really special to do.”

Would he consider returning to the Crimson Tide in 2017?

“Yeah, sure do,” he said. “I’m happy to be here. Coach and I talked about it this week. What a great experience it’s been. All the different quarterbacks. Building it together. And we’ll keep going from here.”

Alabama defense featured on ESPN

“Sorry, nobody gets into the end zone that easy against us.”

That’s the line Alabama defensive end Jonathan Allen delivered after knocking over ESPN reporter Tom Rinaldi in a segment on Saturday’s “College GameDay.” While Allen probably didn’t actually hit Rinaldi, he and his Crimson Tide teammates haven’t taken it that easy on opposing offenses this season.

Alabama’s defense was highlighted on the show because of the remarkable season it has had — particularly of late. The Crimson Tide allowed no touchdowns in November, allowing just 18 points over four games, heading into Saturday’s SEC Championship game.

In the past two months, Alabama has allowed opposing teams to run a play inside the Tide’s 10-yard line only six times. Even senior linebacker Reuben Foster was surprised with that stat when Rinaldi told him.

Ohio State would challenge Alabama

Tim Tebow, the Florida legend — and current SEC Network analyst slash professional baseball player — thinks Ohio State is the one team Alabama should want to avoid, and senior quarterback J.T. Barrett is a big reason for that.

“To beat Alabama, you cannot turn the football over,” Tebow said. “Those silly mistakes cannot happen. You look at all these games with Alabama, and you’ll see so many quarterbacks make a couple great plays ... that’s not what beats Alabama.”