Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is reportedly hiring Charlie Weis Jr to be the Rebels' next offensive coordinator.

Weis, who served as South Florida's offensive coordinator the last two seasons, will replace Jeff Lebby, who left Ole Miss to join Brent Venable's inaugural staff at Oklahoma.

This feels like a panic move by Kiffin.

For starters, Weis wasn't Kiffin's first choice to replace Lebby. While we don't know for sure who Kiffin's top target was (probably Kendal Briles at Arkansas), we at least know that Tennessee Vols offensive coordinator Alex Golesh was ahead of Weis. Kiffin reportedly offered Golesh the job, but Golesh elected to stay on Josh Heupel's staff in Knoxville.

Weis, if you don't remember, was Kiffin's offensive coordinator at Florida Atlantic in 2018 and 2019. When Kiffin got the job at Ole Miss, he didn't bring Weis with him to Oxford. Instead, he poached Lebby from Heupel's staff at UCF.

Florida Atlantic and UCF are both Group of Five programs. It's not like Lebby was at a Power-5 program. Both offensive coordinators were essentially on the "same level".

That tells us that Kiffin didn't view Weis, who is only 28, as someone that was ready to run an offense in the SEC.

And I'm not sure that he should feel any differently after two subpar years from Weis at South Florida.

The Bulls had the No. 122 ranked offense in the country in 2020. In 2021, they had the No. 100 ranked offense in the country. Weis didn't exactly light up the American Athletic Conference.

Weis is not the play-caller that Kiffin wanted at Ole Miss when he took over before the 2020 season. And he wasn't his first choice after Lebby left. And it's easy to see why — he hasn't proved he's anywhere close to being ready to be an SEC offensive coordinator.

Kiffin obviously couldn't get anyone else to come to Ole Miss and coach his offense.

It feels like Kiffin's long con might finally be over.

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