Kiffin front-runner to be 49ers' OC

Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin is a front-runner for the same position with the San Francisco 49ers, sources told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.

Indianapolis Colts special assistant to the head coach Rob Chudzinski is also under consideration for the job, sources added.

Kiffin said last month that he wasn't going to leave Alabama.

"Yes. Definitely," Kiffin said in December, when asked if he would return to the Crimson Tide. "I think that we've still got a lot of stuff we can do better. We'll obviously be working with a new quarterback, and that will be exciting. We've done that before. To me, that's always exciting, the unknown. You've got a new quarterback to see if we can do this again, to see if we can perform really well."

This was Kiffin's first season as an assistant to coach Nick Saban. Kiffin is the former head coach of the Oakland Raiders, Tennessee and USC.

If Kiffin is hired by the 49ers, it will mark his return to the NFL and the Bay Area after being fired by the Raiders in 2008. Late owner Al Davis blasted him in an unprecedented news conference, saying the coach "disgraced" the organization.

The 49ers hired Jim Tomsula as their new head coach this past week.

ESPN.com's David Ching contributed to this report.