Skip to main content
ole-miss logo

Ole Miss football officially announces new additions to coaching staff

11by:Jake Thompson•01/17/22•

JakeThompsonOn3

Chris Kiffin
Chris Kiffin

While Lane Kiffin has confirmed some of the changes on his coaching staff himself over the past few weeks, Ole Miss officially confirmed them on Monday.

Ole Miss football’s coaching staff has some new faces and a returning one after Kiffin finalized four new hires, including his brother, Chris.

Chris Kiffin is coming back to Oxford to serve as the Rebels co-Defensive Coordinator along with Chris Partridge. Kiffin takes over the role with Partridge after DJ Durkin left to take the same position at Texas A&M after the Sugar Bowl. Kiffin will also coach the linebackers.

Kiffin served as the Rebels’ defensive line coach and defensive recruiting coordinator from 2012 to 2016. In 2017, Chris joined his brother at FAU where he was the Owls co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. After a season in Boca Raton, Fla., Kiffin then spent the past four years in the NFL with most recently coaching the Cleveland Browns defensive line.

The Rebels officially have their next offensive coordinator as the hiring of Charlie Weis, Jr. was finalized.

Weis comes in to replace Jeff Lebby, who left Ole Miss to take the same position at his alma mater of Oklahoma last month. He has spent the last two seasons at South Florida as the Bulls’ offensive coordinator.

Weis and Kiffin are also familiar with one another and the former spent two seasons at FAU under Kiffin as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

Derrick Nix, who has been with the program for 14 seasons was promoted to assistant head coach. Nix had been coaching the wide receivers since the 2020 season.

“I’m excited about the direction of our program with these new hires and role changes,” Lane Kiffin said in a statement. “The experience, familiarity and track record of success with these new coaches with only strengthen our staff chemistry and continuity.

“In addition, I look forward to seeing some of our current coaches take on increased leadership roles after helping us guide this team to record-breaking success in our first two seasons here.”

Kiffin also found his next strength coach and running backs coach in Nick Savage and Marquel Blackwell, respectively.

Blackwell spent the previous two seasons at Houston where he was the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2020 then coached the running backs last season. He was also the running backs coach at West Virginia for a season prior to going to Houston.

Savage is the Rebels new head football strength and conditioning coach, replacing Wilson Love. Love spent two seasons in Oxford, coming with Kiffin in 2019 before taking the same job in Oregon last month.

Prior to coming to Oxford, Savage was Florida’s director of football strength and condition the last four seasons.

You may also like