Charlie Weis, Jr., returning to Ole Miss (for Playoff run)

Charlie Weis, Jr., will remain Ole Miss's offensive coordinator through the Rebels' run in the College Football Playoff, the program announced Tuesday.

The announcement comes hours before the highly-anticipated penultimate release of the College Football Playoff rankings. The selection committee's guidelines include language that give them leeway to consider the availability of key personnel -- players and coaches -- when slotting teams.

Many people have invoked the committee dropping undefeated Florida State from the 4-team field in 2023, but the Seminoles played two lackluster games without Jordan Travis. Ole Miss has not yet played a game without Lane Kiffin. However, after Kiffin threatened to gut the Ole Miss offensive staff as a leverage play to allow the Rebels to let him coach the team through the CFP, it seemed inevitable that the committee would have to react. 

"With the playoff committee releasing updated rankings tonight, I wanted it to be known that after conversations with LSU, we are allowing Charlie to return to Ole Miss to coach the team during the playoffs. I've already made the committee aware of this and I’m hopeful this decision will allow Ole Miss to receive the highest ranking possible because these great players are very deserving of that. I’m excited that Charlie will be back to help," Kiffin said Tuesday.

Most, but not all, of Kiffin's staff will remain with the team. Wide receivers coach George McDonald was not included in the graphic of the Rebels' coaching staff for the remainder of the season.

While Ole Miss's inclusion in the field is not in question as an 11-1 team, much hinges on their placement within. Most projections dropped Ole Miss from No. 6 to No. 7 in response to Kiffin's departure, which is a mere guess at how the committee will react to the unprecedented events of this week. There is a large difference between those two rankings.

At No. 6, Ole Miss would, as of today, most likely open with a home game against ACC champion Virginia. While the Cavaliers would be seeded 11th, the committee views them as the 16th best team in the country, while one metric (FEI) has them as low as 38th. As the No. 7 seed, Ole Miss could open at home against Notre Dame, seeded 10th by the committee but ranked No. 4 by FEI. A No. 8 seed would still come with a home game, but against a similarly-dangerous No. 9 seed (Oklahoma or Alabama) and the reward of a possible quarterfinal match against defending national champion Ohio State.

In addition to it being the right thing to do, Kiffin has incentive to aid Ole Miss to as deep a Playoff run as possible. LSU has agreed to pay out any bonuses for Playoff success that were in Kiffin's contract with Ole Miss as if he were still coaching the Rebels. That means a national title run by Ole Miss could still be worth $1 million to its former coach. 

So, Kiffin will have plenty of reasons to root for Weis to remain in Oxford as long as possible.