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The Ole Miss offense still plans to "go fast and score a lot" with new coordinator Charlie Weis, Jr.

11by:Jake Thompson•03/22/22•

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Charlie Weis, Jr.
Charlie Weis, Jr.

Whenever there is a change at the coordinator position on either side of the football there is concern and worry about change taking place with the schemes and play calling.

There is not so much that concern for Ole Miss with the arrival of new co-offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, Jr. and the ‘score from far’ mentality appears to still be well entrenched.

The Rebels officially opened up spring practice on Tuesday, but have been holding workouts all winter after a short break following the Sugar Bowl in January. Following the conclusion of the opening practice of spring, wide receiver Jonathan Mingo spoke with the media.

Mingo sees a lot to like with Weis and reminds him Kiffin. He also noted there is not much difference regarding Weis’ scheme for the offense compared to former Rebel OC Jeff Lebby’s schemes.

“(Weis is) real cool and laid back like coach Kiffin so he’s fun to be around,” Mingo said. “Scheme-wise, everything’s about the same. There’s a few plays that new here and there but everything’s about the same. We still trying to go fast and score a lot.”

The Rebels are coming off a 2021 season where they had one of the top offenses in the country, finishing as the sixth-best and the best in the SEC. Replicating that will be a tall order.

Weis comes in after Lebby left the program to take on the same role at Oklahoma – his alma mater. News broke of Weis’ hiring during the week leading up to the Sugar Bowl, which was Lebby’s swan song with the Rebels.

There is familiarity between Weis and Kiffin. Both were at Alabama for two years before Kiffin hired Weis to be his OC at FAU. Weis spent the last two seasons at South Florida.

During his first press conference with the media this spring, Kiffin noted that Weis will call the plays for the offense — co-defensive coordinator Chris Partridge will call the plays for defense — and echoed Mingo’s sentiments of the offensive schemes not drastically changing.

“There will be a lot of carryover. Defensively, promoting from within and Charlie on offense having been with us before,” Kiffin said. “I think that’s really good for the players. There will be some changes but not overall (changes). It’s what you should do. When you win 10 games you always want to get better and improve and look at new ideas and things, but not totally scratch. Kind of like what we did schematically a year ago on defense where we dramatically changed. I don’t think you’ll see a whole lot of difference on the outside.”

The only major change will be who is under center for the Rebels and tasked with replacing Matt Corral. The open competition between quarterbacks Luke Altmyer, Kinkead Dent and Jaxson Dart is underway with four weeks to try and find an early leader in the clubhouse ahead of summer workouts and fall camp.

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