Tag: Austin Thomas

Report: LSU hiring director of player personnel away from Ole Miss

LSU has reportedly pulled another off-field staffer away from Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss.

LSU has reportedly made a key hire for its football personnel department.

The Tigers are hiring [autotag]Preston Tiffany[/autotag] away from Ole Miss, where he served as director of player personnel, to take over the same role in Baton Rouge. The news was first reported by Football Scoop.

Tiffany will join [autotag]Austin Thomas[/autotag], a former chief of staff in Oxford who also left Ole Miss this offseason to take a similar role for the Tigers. Tiffany replaces outgoing director of player personnel [autotag]Will Redmond[/autotag], who left to take a job at Auburn.

A graduate of South Carolina, Redmond has worked in the Ole Miss personnel department since 2020 in multiple roles. He became the director of player personnel in 2023.

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LSU to name former Ole Miss chief of staff Austin Thomas senior associate AD for football administration

Austin Thomas is returning to LSU after spending two seasons in a high-level role at Ole Miss.

It was reported on Friday that LSU would be hiring away [autotag]Austin Thomas[/autotag] after two years as the football chief of staff at Ole Miss, and now we now what role he is going to occupy in Baton Rouge.

On Saturday, The Advocate’s Wilson Alexander reported that Thomas will be the senior associate athletics director for football administration. This will be his fourth stint at LSU after he was previously a director of player personnel (2013-16) and general manager (2016-17, 2020-21).

He has also served in similar roles at USC, Baylor and Texas A&M, and he began his career as a defensive quality control coach and recruiting and personnel assistant at his alma mater Tennessee.

It’s more shakeup to LSU’s off-field football staff after former director of player personnel [autotag]Will Redmond[/autotag] left to become the general manager at Auburn earlier this week.

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Report: LSU hiring Ole Miss chief of staff to join football player personnel department

Austin Thomas is back for his fourth stint at LSU after serving as the chief of staff under Lane Kiffin the last two years.

[autotag]Austin Thomas[/autotag] is making his return to Baton Rouge after two years as the chief of staff under Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss. The news was first reported by Wilson Alexander of The Advocate.

The news comes in the wake of a shakeup to LSU’s player personnel department as its director, [autotag]Will Redmond[/autotag], left to take a similar role at Auburn. While Thomas’ job at LSU isn’t yet clear, it seems fair to assume that he will replace Redmond.

Thomas previously served as the general manager under [autotag]Ed Orgeron[/autotag] from 2016-18 and again in 2021. Between those stints, he served in similar roles at Texas A&M and later Baylor.

He wasn’t retained when [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] took over after the 2021 season, but he’ll become yet another staffer from that group who is returning to Baton Rouge after two years away.

Thomas began his career at his alma mater, Tennessee, serving as a recruiting and personnel assistant and later as a defensive quality control coach. He joined USC as an assistant director of player personnel in 2010 before leaving to direct that department at LSU in 2013.

He briefly returned to USC in 2016 to serve as an assistant athletic director for football, but Oregon brought him back when he got the full-time job.

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LSU football hires a general manager

The LSU Tigers made another staff move on Wednesday when head coach Ed Orgeron announced the hiring of Austin Thomas as general manager.

The LSU Tigers made another staff move on Wednesday when head coach Ed Orgeron announced Austin Thomas’s hiring as general manager.

While most fans are familiar with the role of general manager as someone who manages the roster for professional sports teams and, in many cases, hires and fires the head coach.

In his new role, Thomas will help Orgeron manage the roster. The position of general manager has become more popular for larger college programs due to the advent of the NCAA transfer portal.

A college general manager will support the head coach, helping manage day-to-day operations, with roster management being a primary focus.

Thomas returns to LSU after spending the 2020 season at Baylor, where he was the senior associate athletic director for football.

Thomas worked at LSU from 2013-17, starting in a support role before being moved up to general manager by Orgeron in 2016. At the time, he was the first person in the SEC with the general manager title and only the second in college football.

Thomas released a statement on his return to Baton Rouge via the team’s official website.

My family and I are humbled and excited to return to Baton Rouge and for the opportunity to serve as the general manager for the LSU football program. We are forever grateful to Coach Orgeron, Scott Woodward, the LSU administration and the entire LSU community for this opportunity and for welcoming us with open arms.

Thomas also served as the associate athletic director for football personnel at Texas A&M from 2018-19.

Before coming to Baton Rouge in 2013, he spent time at both Tennessee and USC.