Ole Miss Adding Chris Kiffin, Marquel Blackwell to Coaching Staff

News broke on Thursday morning that the Rebels had found a defensive and offensive assistant to fill staff vacancies.

Chris Kiffin is returning to Oxford.

Rivals' Chase Parham reported on Thursday that Kiffin had accepted a position to join his brother at Ole Miss after previously serving on staff in Oxford during Hugh Freeze's tenure.

Hearing Chris Kiffin has accepted a position on Lane Kiffin’s #OleMiss staff. Chris was most recently with the Browns and was on Hugh Freeze’s staff with the Rebels.

— Chase Parham (@ChaseParham) January 13, 2022

As noted in Parham's tweet, Kiffin joins the Rebels after a stint with the Cleveland Browns that stretched from 2020 as their defensive line coach. According to Bruce Feldman, Kiffin is expected to coach linebackers and be co-defensive coordinator alongside Chris Partridge. 

Partridge had been in talks with the Rebels in recent weeks for taking over their play calling duties following the departure of D.J. Durkin for Texas A&M.

Chris Kiffin is expected to coach linebackers for Ole Miss, per source. He coached LBs at FAU when he was also the Owls defensive coordinator in 2017 before he moved on to the NFL with the 49ers and Browns.

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) January 13, 2022

Kiffin was cited in Ole Miss' Notice of Allegations from the NCAA back in Freeze's tenure and was not allowed to recruit off-campus for a period of time as a result. He left Oxford in 2016 to join his brother Lane Kiffin's staff at FAU.

The other coaching news from Thursday morning came originally from On3 where they reported that Houston running backs coach Marquel Blackwell would be joining the Rebels' staff at the same position, taking over for the departed Kevin Smith.

Ole Miss is expected to hire Houston’s Marquel Blackwell as running backs coach, sources tell @on3sports.

Blackwell, who previously worked in the SEC at Florida, was the runner-up for the Alabama running backs job last year.https://t.co/k5bN5NhJoE

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) January 13, 2022

Blackwell was at Florida during the 2015 season. He also played quarterback at South Florida from 1999-2002 and the NFL's New York Jets briefly in 2003.

This news on Thursday comes after a flurry of coaching staff turnover has hit Oxford in recent days. Check back with The Grove Report for more updates on the evolving Ole Miss coaching staff.

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