OXFORD, Miss. According to 247Sports, senior associate athletic director and football general manager Austin Thomas is expected to make a third trip back to the LSU Tigers, meaning the Ole Miss Rebels are looking to add another staff member. Thomas worked with LSU as a member of Les Miles’ staff from 2013 to 2017, when he became one of the first general managers in college football history with the Tigers in 2021. He then joined the Ole Miss staff in 2022. Thomas served as a link to campus stakeholders while overseeing the administrative and operational aspects of the football program at Ole Miss.
When head coach Brian Kelly was hired in December 2021, LSU did not keep Thomas, but it seems Baton Rouge is contacting once more.
Thomas served as the associate athletic director for football personnel at Texas A&M Aggies from 2018 to 2019. He was the football program’s senior associate athletic director for the Baylor Bears in 2020. Prior to that, Thomas began working under Lane Kiffin as a coach with the Tennessee Volunteers and USC Trojans.
Although Thomas’s departure is painful, Ole Miss has fortunately not had a lot of personnel changes this summer. George McDonald of the Illinois Fighting Illini was hired by the Rebels on Saturday to serve as the wide receivers coach and coordinator of the pass game. Derrick Nix was recently promoted to the Auburn Tigers.
