Ole Miss offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, Jr. hit the podium on Thursday to meet with the media during fall camp. Here's everything he said at his press conference.
Ole Miss offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, Jr. hit the podium on Thursday to meet with the media during fall camp. Here’s everything he said at his press conference.
On the development track with Austin Simmons and who is involved in that from the staff: “Yes, it’s a huge process, right? I think Jaxson (Dart), it’s interesting preparing Austin to Jaxson because we had Jaxson on three separate years and honestly all three were totally different players, you know what I mean? So, it’s interesting with Austin, he’s had two years here to develop but he’s never played full-time. He’s never been the guy, the starter, all the things that come with that. I would say overall he’s on a great track. He’s certainly much further ahead than Jaxson was when he first got here in 2022 because that was Jackson’s first year in the system compared to Austin having those years built in.
“It’s certainly a collective effort from Coach Kiffin obviously and the great details and mentorship that he can give Austin and his experience throughout the years. Coach (Joe) Judge does an unbelievable job of mentoring the quarterbacks, getting their minds ready, prepping them, teaching them coverages, defenses, all the different things that you need to do at the quarterback position. I’m very grateful that we have Coach Kiffin, we have Coach Judge, we have several other staff members, Coach Fisher (Ray) and Dane Stevens that work with our quarterbacks and do a phenomenal job developing that position.”
On the Ole Miss RB room so far in camp: “Definitely, I’ve seen improvement. I think it’s a good group of guys with some different skill sets. Kewan Lacey has a little bit more of that home run threat that we certainly need and that we’ve had in the past, but I think he’ll be able to replicate that for us. Then Logan (Diggs) and DT (Damien Taylor) are guys that are very powerful runners. They’re very disciplined runners, know how to run, they do a good job of not getting you into negative play situations and staying ahead of the sticks, which is very important. When you’re an explosive offense and you’re trying to push the ball down the field, when you run the ball you obviously want it to be efficient and effective and all three of those guys do a good job of that.”
On the outside WRs for Ole Miss and the talent there: “Yeah, we’ve been really blessed with the receiver position here since I’ve been here, having lots of good players. I think the thing that sticks out with this year’s group, and I think Coach has said, is just the depth of the room. Where we feel we’re gonna be able to play six, seven, guys deep, which will certainly help us as the year progresses, right? Cuz we wanna be able to rotate those guys, keep them fresh. That’s something that we certainly see able, and I definitely think it would be a strength for our offense.”
On Ole Miss putting Caleb Odom at TE: “I think he’s done a great job with it. That’s been a really good move for him. I think it really highlights the things that he does really well of being a bigger body slot, being able to be in the core to do certain things in the run game, being able to flex out as the single receiver. It allows us to be a lot more multiple with him compared to him just sticking as an outside receiver, kind of like he played in the spring where, hey, he’s just standing out there. There’s some things that he certainly does well at that, but maybe some other things that don’t use his strengths to the best of his ability. I think putting him at tight end, you’re able to get really creative, do a whole bunch of things, and it allows us to utilize more personnel groupings, too. In some groups he may be a slot, in some groups he may be a true tight end, in some groups he may be an outside receiver. That’s been a very interesting move for us, and I’m excited to see where that goes.”
On Ole Miss true freshman OL Devin Harper: “Yeah, Devin has relentless effort. I mean, for a true freshman, he plays extremely hard, he’s extremely talented, very athletic. So those are the things that number one, stand out. He’s got to continue, obviously, to work on the playbook and strength, all the other traits that come with time, you know what I mean? This is probably the most talented true freshman lineman I think that we’ve seen here since I’ve been here with a guy that’s got a very unique skill set. He’s got the right mindset, tenacity that you want for that position to play early.”
On specific work done with Austin Simmons in offseason: “I think with Austin, there are certainly several things that we wanted to work on. I think number one, it was a big deal for him taking over his leadership with the team because you’re replacing a guy with Jaxson who was an alpha type guy who had the locker room and had a certain personality about him. So I think it was a big deal for us transitioning Austin, number one, into that leadership style and letting him be who he is. He doesn’t need to be Jaxson Dart. He doesn’t need to be Matt Corral. He can be Austin. He can be exactly who he is. It’s been really cool seeing his transition over time and how he’s handled that. And then certainly there’s things too like we knew the certain throws that he throws really well and we’ll try to formulate our offense that accentuate those throws. But then there’s certain throws that he needed to get better at and we’ve continued to work on that from spring ball to summer to fall camp, continuing till today and so we’ll continue to work on those things.”
On Trinidad Chambliss’ play lately in camp: “Yeah, he’s been very impressive lately. I think early on in camp, he was kind of learning the playbook and picking things up and it’s harder coming in in the summertime and getting caught up to speed on the system. Once he’s kind of got it nailed down, he’s a baller man, he can go play. He really shows up and move the ball periods where it’s real football. You’re playing down, distance situations, ultra-competitive guy. It’s been really cool to see his development even in the last week and how far he’s come. So I’m excited to see as he continues to progress.”
On continuity of coaching staff helping Austin Simmons: “I think that’s huge because we’ve got so many new players. It’s really great because I think as a staff we’re all on the same page of what the plays are, what we’re running, what we’re trying to accomplish. Now we’re able to let our coaches kind of go and get all the details nailed down. It’s not like we’re breaking in a bunch of new coaches and Coach Kiffin or myself, we’re having to kind of teach the details and what we’re trying to do and then they got to go do it. We’ve got to make sure that it’s being relayed the right way. We’re all on the same page of what we’re trying to accomplish. So now we can really hone in and get our guys down to the detail because there are so many new players.”
On if Ole Miss will rotate at RB this year more: “I certainly do. I think that’s definitely been a big emphasis for us. Even in the portal in December of knowing that we need to be deeper as this season progresses and have more guys available and continuing to fight for every guy that we can get on our roster. That’s what’s been really cool to see is that we’re able to have a couple guys banged up in practice and the next guys go in and it doesn’t feel like a major drop off.”
On the line to walk between managing Simmons’ game managing vs. playmaking: “It’s a difficult balance. It’s interesting because on one hand, that guy’s been here for three years. On one, I think he’s still 19 years old, you know what I mean? And he hasn’t played in as many games. So it’s certainly a fine line. I think the cool thing is now you do have to coach the player headset communication, right? So between Coach Kiffin and myself, I think we’re able to give him some good reminders, whether it’s in practice situations, scrimmage situations and all that to kind of help lead him as the game progresses. I think as the season starts, we’ll get to see him grow and continue to get better and better.”
On the biggest change for him entering Year 4 in Oxford: “Well, I love living in Oxford, so I feel very settled. Being a coach’s son, I think this is the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere since I lived in South Bend when my dad was the head coach at Notre Dame. So it’s really awesome just being in a great community with tons of really, really good people. So it’s obviously great to feel settled. It’s amazing being with coaching staff, continuing to get to work with Coach Kiffin and the rest of our coaches who really all came back from a year ago. Now it’s just all sights are focused on doing the best job that we can do as an offensive staff for our players to put them in the best situation to go win as many games as possible and go help our team win.”
On his feeling about the Ole Miss offensive line: “I think we always obviously have a very high standard around here for offense and how we should produce both in the past and the run game. I think it’s no secret coach obviously talked about, we didn’t run the ball good enough last year at times. Certainly in SEC games and times when it mattered. I think Coach Garrison has done a great job of bringing some new guys in that we feel are gonna be really, really good for us and really good players. I think we are really good at the top. We’re continuing to build that depth to be seven, eight, nine guys deep, which is the goal. But I feel very, very confident in that group and what they’re doing. We’ve got some really good leaders up front that have stepped up and I’m excited to see how they do this year.”
Category: General Sports
