Ole Miss coaches going to LSU: Who is still coaching vs. Miami while working for Lane Kiffin?

Morgan Moriarty

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Ole Miss coaches going to LSU: Who is still coaching vs. Miami while working for Lane Kiffin? image

The Ole Miss Rebels are continuing their College Football Playoff run. Despite losing head coach Lane Kiffin to LSU in late November, Ole Miss has surprised everyone with its 2-0 CFP record, including an upset win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

It’s an impressive effort led by new Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding, who was previously the Rebels’ defensive coordinator. Another factor in Ole Miss’ success is that the team has been able to use Kiffin’s former assistants -- even those following him to Baton Rouge -- during the playoff.

That ends now, however, as not all of Kiffin’s future assistants will be on the sideline when Ole Miss takes on Miami in the CFP semifinal. Let’s take a look at which coaches will and won’t be on hand for Ole Miss’ Fiesta Bowl matchup with the Hurricanes.

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Who are the Ole Miss coaches going to LSU? 

Charlie Weis Jr., Offensive Coordinator

Weis Jr. Is the son of former Notre Dame and Kansas head coach Charlie Weis. Weis Jr., 32, has been coaching at the college level since 2011. He started as a Florida offensive quality control coach in 2011 before serving as Kansas’ team manager from 2012 to 2014. He was an analyst at Alabama under Nick Saban from 2015 to 2016 and spent a season with the Atlanta Falcons in 2017.

He first teamed up with Lane Kiffin at Florida Atlantic in 2018, serving as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. The two spent two seasons together before Kiffin moved to Ole Miss. Weis Jr. Went to South Florida instead, where he coached for two seasons as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He then reunited with Kiffin at Ole Miss in 2022.

Weis Jr. Will head to Baton Rouge to become the offensive coordinator at LSU alongside Kiffin following Ole Miss’ season.

Joe Cox, Co-Offensive Coordinator, Tight Ends Coach

Cox played quarterback at Georgia from 2005 to 2009. He started coaching at Mallard Creek High School in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina in 2014, then spending 2015-2019 at Colorado State as a graduate assistant then tight ends coach. D then moving up to the collegiate level in 2015 at Colorado State. 

Prior to arriving at Ole Miss in 2024, he coached at South Carolina, Charlotte and Alabama. 

George McDonald, Wide Receivers Coach

McDonald played wide receiver for Illinois from 1994 to 1998. After a two-year hiatus from football he became a graduate assistant at Ball Stat in 2000. He's been coaching at several stops for the last two decades and a wide receivers coach, such as Minnesota, Miami, and Syracuse. He also spent two years as the Cleveland Browns wide receivers coach.

McDonald had his longest stint at NC State, where he coached from 2015-2020. He then spent two years under Bret Bielema's staff at Illinois before being hired by Kiffin at Ole Miss in 2024. 

Kevin Smith, Running Backs Coach

Kevin Smith was a standout running back at UCF from 2004 to 2007, rushing for 4,679 yards with 45 touchdowns over three seasons. He was drafted by the Detroit Lions in 2008 in the third round with the No. 64 overall pick. He spent five seasons there and transitioned to coaching after a brief stint in the CFL.

He began his coaching career at his alma mater, UCF, from 2015 to 2016, then went to Florida Atlantic from 2017 to 2019, spending three seasons with Kiffin. He followed Kiffin to Oxford for Ole Miss in 2020–2021 and again from 2023 to 2025, with a stop at Miami in 2022. He was a big reason for running back Kewan Lacy’s success in 2025.

Nick Savage, Head Strength Coach

Savage earned his bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Youngstown State in 2013. He spent most of his early career in Ohio, interning at Bowling Green in 2013, Ohio State from 2013 to 2014, and Toledo in 2014. He then served as assistant strength coach at Mississippi State for two seasons before taking over as head strength coach from 2016 to 2020, after which he joined Kiffin’s staff at Ole Miss.

Dane Stevens, Quarterbacks Coach

Stevens has spent most of his coaching career on the offensive side of the ball. He graduated from USC in 2019, where he started his career as an offensive quality control analyst at USC before coming to Kiffin's staff at Ole Miss as an assistant quarterbacks coach from 2022-34. He left to become the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at West Georgia, but returned to Kiffin's staff at Ole Miss after one season. 

Chris Kiffin, Linebackers Coach

Chris Kiffin is Lane's younger brother. He started his coaching career in 2005, and has a number of different collegiate and NFL stops throughout his career. Primarily coaching on the defensive side of the ball, he spent time at Nebraska, USC, Arkansas State and FAU with Kiffin in 2017. He then spent five seasons in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns and Houston Texans from 2018-2022 before reuniting with his brother at Ole Miss in 2024.   

MORE: Ole Miss vs. Miami predictions: Expert picks and odds for 2025 CFP semifinal

Which assistants are coaching in the Fiesta Bowl? 

Ole Miss will have a smaller group of assistants for Ole Miss' game against the Hurricanes. ESPN first reported that offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. And running backs coach Kevin Smith will continue to coach the Rebels during its Fiesta Bowl appearance. 

The staff will not include tight ends coach and co-offensive coordinator Joe Cox, receivers coach and passing game coordinator George McDonald, or quarterbacks coach Dan Stevens, all of whom were on hand for Ole Miss’ first two CFP victories.

"They have every opportunity like they have up to this point to be able to make that decision," Ole Miss coach Pete Golding told ESPN last week of the coaches doing two jobs at once. "So week in and week out, I don't dictate whether they do that or not, because they're not employed by me. Up to this point, that's how it's been, and that's my expectation."

Golding also is understanding of the current challenging college football calendar, which has the open transfer portal window through Jan. 16. 

Lane Kiffin LSU coaching staff

PositionCoach
Offensive CoordinatorCharlie Weis Jr.*
Co-Offensive Coordinator, Tight Ends CoachJoe Cox*
Wide Receivers CoachGeorge McDonald*
Head Strength CoachNick Savage*
Quarterbacks CoachDane Stevens*
Running Backs CoachKevin Smith*
Inside Receivers CoachSawyer Jordan
Offensive Line CoachEric Wolford
Defensive CoordinatorBlake Baker
EDGE CoachKevin Peoples
Secondary CoachCorey Raymond
Safeties coachJake Olsen
Linebackers coachChris Kiffin*
Special Teams CoachJoe Houston

*denotes coach is coming over from Ole Miss with Kiffin.

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Why wasn't Lane Kiffin allowed to coach at Ole Miss? 

Kiffin reportedly wanted to coach Ole Miss during its playoff run. That was also a major reason his announcement to leave for LSU was drawn out. But with Kiffin headed to an SEC rival and the tricky recruiting calendar overlapping with the playoff, Ole Miss was not on board with the idea.

"Extremely difficult decision," Kiffin said in his introductory presser at LSU the following Monday. "In that, we tried every single thing possible to continue to coach the team through the playoffs and to continue to coach the players. In the end that was their decision, and we totally respect that and appreciate the time and energy that we tried to figure out a plan to do the best thing at the time for those players."

It was later reported that Kiffin wanted to finish the season with Ole Miss through its playoff run, while simultaneously threatening to poach players if he could not. 

MORE: Get to know new Ole Miss coach Pete Golding

Who is Ole Miss' interim head coach?

Ole Miss does not have an interim head coach. Instead, the school wasted no time in naming Golding the team's permanent head coach for the CFP and beyond after Kiffin's departure. 

MORE: Ranking the CFP semifinalists form first to worst

Is Pete Golding going to LSU?

No, Pete Golding is not going to LSU. He signed a five-year contract to become Ole Miss’ head coach last month. That contract runs through 2030. His annual salary is $6.8 million and increases by $100,000 each year.

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