During his four seasons aside head coach Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss, offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. helped author some of the school’s greatest offenses that positioned the Rebels among the top programs in the College Football Playoff in 2025.
The Rebels won 42 games and finished in the Top 11 of the Associated Press Poll three times with a high of No. 3 last season after reaching the CFP’s quarterfinals against Miami.
Weiss orchestrated some of the nation’s top offenses with quarterbacks. He developed Jaxson Dart into a first-round draft pick of the New York Giants, and senior Trinidad Chambliss who will be a part of the Heisman Trophy conversation in 2026.
Weis, who followed Kiffin to LSU where the Tigers open the ’26 season on Sept. 5 against Clemson, believes he has another uber-talented quarterback in junior Sam Leavitt that should flourish in his up-tempo, spread system.
“I’ve been blessed to work with some pretty amazing players,” Weis said last Friday during his lone media availability. “I see Sam the same way. It’s awesome. All three of these guys are unbelievable leaders and people. The coach-quarterback relationship is a really unique one because there’s so much that goes into it.
“They’ve got to understand so much about your thought process, how you think between coach Kiffin, myself, the quarterback … all three of us getting on the same page to make the game flow the way the way that we see it,” Weis said. “It’s a really cool process. It’s long process, too. From when they first get here before we even start spring ball, through spring, through summer stuff, summer workouts through fall camp and into the season. All three of those guys have an incredible skill set. A lot of similarities between the three of them and very blessed to get to coach them.”
ANOTHER CORNERSTONE TO WORK WITH
The 6-foot-2, 216-pound Leavitt quarterbacked Arizona State to the 2024 College Football Playoff and entered the transfer portal as the nation’s No. 1 quarterback before choosing Kiffin and LSU.
Leavitt, a native of Oregon who began his career at Michigan State, passed for 4,652 yards and 36 touchdowns during his 24-game career. He added 816 yards and 10 touchdowns.
He first incurred a Lisfranc injury in last Arizona State’s game with Baylor last September, an injury he reaggravated a month later against Houston.
Leavitt had surgery on Oct. 25, a follow up in early spring to remove the pins and screws, forcing him to miss spring practice at LSU. He threw during the team’s summer 7-on-7 program before receiving full clearance to participate in fall camp.
“Sam and (tight end) Tre’Dez (Green) have been super fun to coach,” Weis said. “Some of the cool things (are) when the best players on your team, they’re the hardest workers, it’s really cool. Seeing Tre’Dez, and how much work he puts into it, his mindset is elite. He’s an absolute pro in everything that he does. He’ll just go all day if you let him. I think what’s cool is how much he can handle mentally putting on his plate, which allows us the ability to put him in a lot of different positions and do some really cool things with him. Obviously, he’s got the athletic skill set that you dream of.
“I think he and Sam have really good chemistry,” Weis said. “Sam’s another guy that puts the work in all the time. Watching film, doing whatever he can. He likes to be very involved too. There’s a lot of back-and-forth conversation between all of us, coach Dane (Stevens), our quarterbacks coach, and myself, coach Kiffin. It’s really fun being in the quarterback room when you’ve got a veteran, experienced guy that can understand football at a really high level and you can bounce things off of each other.”
The 6-foot-7, 237-pound Green, a junior, was fourth a year ago on the team with 33 receptions for 433 yards (13.1 yards per catch) and a team-best seven touchdowns.
Kiffin will have the option of pairing Green together with Dae’Quan Wright whom he coached at Ole Miss. Wright, a 6-4, 246-pounder, committed to the Tigers on Sunday after spending training camp with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns who reportedly waived him.
Wright caught 39 passes for 635 yards (16.3 yards per catch) and was part of tight end position with three other players that had 66 receptions, 924 yards and nine TDs.
SKILL EVERYWHERE
Weis said LSU has a wealth of talent at both wide receiver and running back, giving him the kind of depth that makes his fast-paced style possible.
“There’s a lot of players we feel confident that can make a lot of plays if called upon,” he said.
Sophomore transfer Dilin Jones of Wisconsin has garnered plenty of attention throughout fall camp. The 5-11, 211-pounder rushed 76 times for 300 yards and 2 TDs before a turf toe injury in the seventh game of the season against Ohio State sidelined him for the rest of the season.
Jones had a two-year career total of 88 attempts for 388 yards and 2 TDs, while fellow sophomore Stacy Gage, a 5-10, 206-pounder, had limited action in two years at Central Florida (13 carries, 63 yards, 1 TD) in 11 games.
LSU does have a pair of familiar faces in sophomore Harlem Berry (104-491, 3 TDs) and junior Caden Durham (111-505, 3 TDs).
“Dilin’s a little bit bigger back, and the rest of these guys have some real home-run ability that when they get in the game, they can change the scoreboard in a hurry,” Weis said. “All of those guys, (running back) coach (Kevin) Smith’s done a great job. He’s gotten all of those guys better every single day. Every single practice. Where we are now, from where we started camp, it is in a completely different spot. I think all of those guys are going a really good job.”
Depth is the byword for LSU at wide receiver where the lone returning receiver from 2025, redshirt freshman Phillip Wright, had one catch for two yards.
Kiffin built the depth of wide receiver position through the transfer portal with seven Division I signees.
Junior Jackson Harris was a first-team All-Mountain West performer for Hawaii where he finished with 55 catches in two seasons, 1,049 yards and 13 TDs. Harris, who began his career at Stanford, averaged 19.62 yards per catch and 87.5 yards per game and receiving TDs (12) to lead the Mountain West.
Senior Jayce Brown, a Kansas State transfer, is one of two receivers to earn all-conference honors at their previous school. The third team All-Big Conference selection had 41 catches for 712 yards and five touchdowns and ranked among the Top 10 receivers in school history with 115 catches, 1,972 yards and 13 TDs.
Junior Tre’ Brown, an Old Dominion transfer, was a third-team All-Sun Belt Conference choice, leading his team in yards per receptions (20.05) and was fourth in receiving yards (762). He finished with 38 catches for 762 yards and 4 TDs in 13 starts.
Junior Eugene Wilson, a transfer from Florida, caught 107 passes for 1,043 yards and 10 TDs in 22 games for the career. He was a freshman All-American in 2023 when he had 61 catches for 538 yards and 6 TDs – including a school-record 11 catches against No. 1 Georgia.
One of Kiffin’s former players, sophomore Winston Watkins, played in all 15 games last season with 26 receptions, 373 yards and a TD.
The Tigers also signed Roman Mothershed of Troy (29-297, TD) and junior Malik Elzy of Illinois (16-213, 2 TDs).
“The good thing is we have a lot of depth, a lot of players that have the ability to make plays,” Weis said. “There have been a few guys that are certainly standing out and been really consistent. Other guys are times will flash but need to make a few more plays. I’m very pleased with the depth of that group.
“I still think there’s still time to kind iron out how exactly it’s going to play out when we get to Saturdays,” Weis said. “That group’s definitely got a ton of players that can make plays with different skill sets. You have the smaller, faster guys, quick-twitch guys, longer guys. You kind of got a little bit of everything you could want.”
Weis said Saturday’s final full-scale scrimmage gave players another opportunity to improve their standing as coaches finalize the depth chart.
“There’s still work to be done in terms of establishing the depth chart,” he said. “I still think we have room to grow in terms of finalizing that. In terms of the scheme and kind of knowing where we’re going to be I feel pleased about that.”
