Offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. was dragged into the Ole Miss versus Lane Kiffin drama that rocked college football last week. Weis, who was the Rebels’ offensive coordinator, was one of the coaches who boarded Kiffin’s plane for Baton Rouge when he took the LSU Tigers job.
A few days after the move, Kiffin revealed that he had allowed Weis to return to Oxford to continue coaching the Rebels during their College Football Playoff so that they would not be dinged by the Committee during Selection Sunday.
Pete Golding Reveals Why He Allowed Charlie Weis Jr. Back at Ole Miss
During an interview with ESPN’s Alyssa Lang, former Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding, who was elevated to the team’s coach after Kiffin’s departure, revealed why he allowed Weis to come back to coach the Rebels.
“There was never any indecision with Charlie,” Golding said. “When he left, that ‘Hey, I’m 1,000% coaching in the game for the players, and I just want to give myself the opportunity after this season concludes, whether I want to coach at LSU, obviously, with Coach Kiffin, or come back to Ole Miss and continue to be the offensive coordinator.”
“There was never any indecision whether he was going to coach in the game or not, and that’s for the players. That has nothing to do with me, that has nothing to do with Kiffin, right? That was for the players to finish what he started. We were never nervous at all.”
There was concern among both fans and analysts that Kiffin’s departure from Ole Miss on the verge of Selection Sunday would lead to a drop in the team’s rankings, but the Rebels were ranked No. 6. They will host the No. 11 Tulane in Oxford, and should they win, a clash against the No. 3 Georgia awaits them.
Weis was one of five assistants who joined Kiffin at LSU, and according to an ESPN report, he signed a three-year deal worth $6 million in his role as the Tigers’ new offensive coordinator.
Weis started his coaching career as an offensive quality control coach for the Florida Gators (2011), before becoming the Kansas Jayhawks’ team manager (2012-2014). In 2015, he became an offensive analyst for the Alabama Crimson Tide during Kiffin’s stint as the offensive coordinator.
He followed Kiffin to Florida Atlantic, where he became the team’s tight ends coach before joining the Atlanta Falcons (2017) as an offensive assistant, before going back to FAU as the offensive coordinator under Kiffin (2018). Between 2020 and 2021, he became the USF Bulls’ O.C. before joining Kiffin’s staff at Ole Miss in 2022 in the same position.
After Weis’s return and the bracket reveal on Selection Sunday, according to PFSN’s College Football Playoff Meter, the Rebels have a 19.04% chance of reaching the national championship game.
