On Monday, a report from ESPN confirmed four former Ole Miss staffers who left with former head coach Lane Kiffin for LSU would be returning for the Rebels’ College Football Playoff run.
Tight ends coach
Joe Cox, wide receivers coach George McDonald, assistant quarterbacks coach Dane Stevens and slot receivers coach Sawyer Jordan are back in Oxford along with offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. after the announcement Ole Miss would host a home playoff game against Tulane on Dec. 20 at 2:30 p.m. CT.
Now, that’s the news part of it, great job Pete Thamel. The spin zone then takes us to a place where Kiffin has so magnanimously offered this help to Ole Miss to assist with getting his former team as far as possible in the playoff. Wow, what a great person! A TRUE SPORTSMAN!
Don’t forget this key part of the equation – LSU has committed to paying Kiffin out his Ole Miss bonuses for every playoff win and potential national title that could mean a seven figure plus pay day. Oh, so you mean he has a lot to gain from this move financially and it makes him look good from a PR standpoint? Cue the Breaking Bad, “he can’t keep getting away with this” gif.
Then there’s the fan paranoia that is hitting on the message boards. How can Ole Miss let these coaches back into its facility in good faith? Are they gathering intel for LSU or trying to pry players off the roster for next season?
The truth is I’m not sure many people really know outside of the coaches themselves where they will be in 2026. There are rumors about MOU’s or memorandum of understanding some of Kiffin’s staff has signed committing them to LSU in a non-binding contract. This would mean potentially there is no guarantee for these coaches to Ole Miss or LSU at least contractually until after the playoff run ends. Undoubtedly though, they will all be at one school or the other.
From the new head coach’s perspective, Pete Golding adopted a “interim” mantra for this playoff telling local media nothing is going to change for now. He likened it to the COVID season when then-Alabama head coach Nick Saban was out for two games and the staff just ran the team like business as usual. Thank you to COVID in the year 2025 for prepping Ole Miss’ coaching staff for this weird situation we’re now in.
It’d be foolish not to accept the help of four staffers, so it is a welcome bit of news for Ole Miss. With only 10 days until the history making playoff game, there’s no real time to dramatically make any changes any way, so adding some consistency should be a boost for the players.
