LSU General Manager Austin Thomas Joining Lane Kiffin's Staff at Ole Miss

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has found his new chief of staff.

Author:
Ben King
Publish date:
Jan 28, 2022 4:03 PM EST

In this story:

Ole Miss Rebels

LSU Tigers

Texas A&M Aggies

Baylor Bears

OXFORD, Miss. -- Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has added one of college football's top personnel officials to his staff in Oxford.

Austin Thomas, the general manager of the LSU Tigers in 2021, is expected to join Kiffin's staff according to Matt Zenitz, a senior national college football reporter for On3 Sports.

Ole Miss is hiring Thomas to be their new chief of staff.

Thomas was hired to be LSU's general manager in 2021 after he worked with the Tigers as a part of Les Miles' staff from 2013 to 2017.

From 2018 to 2019 Thomas worked for Texas A&M and was the Aggies' associate athletic director for football personnel. In 2020, Thomas served as the senior associate athletic director for the Baylor Bear's football program.

This is a likely huge hire for the Rebels and Kiffin. While Thomas has bounced around a lot in recent years, he has a strong reputation around college football and the Southeastern Conference.

Kiffin has lost both coordinators (Jeff Lebby and D.J. Durkin), his general manager (Matt Lindsey) and multiple key assistants after Ole Miss won a program-record 10 regular season games in 2021. The Rebels have also lost key players to the NFL Draft and the transfer portal.

Kiffin has done his best, however, to try and counter the mass exodus of players and staff members. The offensive mastermind has slowly but surely been rebuilding his staff and snagging pieces out of the transfer portal.

Kiffin has the Rebels currently ranked No. three in the latest 247Sports Transfer rankings.

Ole Miss fans can expect the Rebels to move up the rankings soon now that USC quarterback Jaxson Dart's transfer is all but official, and he will possibly be joined by teammate tight end Michael Trigg.