LSU granted assistant coaches Charlie Weis Jr. and Kevin Smith permission to continue double duty and work for Ole Miss through the Fiesta Bowl on Thursday.
The offensive coaches have been splitting their focus between LSU and Ole Miss (13-1), which plays Miami (12-2) in the College Football Playoff semifinal in Glendale, Ariz. LSU, now coached by Lane Kiffin, has a lot of irons in the fire as a new coaching staff with the transfer portal open for business.
Ole Miss is not expected to have two other assistants who helped the offense get reads for CFP wins over Tulane and Georgia. Tight ends coach/co-offensive coordinator Joe Cox and receivers coach/passing game coordinator George McDonald are now exclusively working under Kiffin in Baton Rouge.
Weis, the Rebels’ offensive coordinator under Kiffin, and Smith, who is the outgoing running backs coach at Ole Miss, are working both gigs out of loyalty to newly promoted head coach Pete Golding and players they coached and — in some cases — recruited to play in Oxford.
There has been acrimony since Kiffin departed after the Egg Bowl in November, including accusations of stretching facts about his desire to coach the team in the playoff. More recently, Ole Miss director of recruiting MacKenzie Morris fired arrows alleging Kiffin was tampering with former players while they were still preparing for games.
Weis and Smith were with Kiffin on the recruiting trail on Monday before rejoining Ole Miss, according to athletic director Keith Carter.
“Charlie has been awesome, juggling two high-profile jobs. He’s been incredible. We have no complaints,” Carter told ESPN on Tuesday.
Golding said he trusts players “know what to do” regardless of the assistants who are physically present at practice and on gameday.
“It’s going to have no impact on gameday,” he said. “Keep blowing it up and making it a big deal. That’d be great.”
