ESPN: Charlie Weis Jr. becomes nation’s youngest offensive coordinator at Florida Atlantic

photo by: Nick Krug

Head coach Charlie Weis watches warmups with his son Charlie Weis Jr. on Saturday, April 12, 2014 at Memorial Stadium. Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo

Many will go to their graves believing that the $12.5 million Charlie Weis was paid to coach Kansas for two-and-one-third seasons was his primary motivation for accepting athletic director Sheahon Zenger’s surprising job offer.

I never believed that. I thought it ranked second to his chief motivation, which became obvious at his introductory press conference. Weis took the Kansas job to use it as a vehicle to launch his son Charlie Jr.’s coaching career. The $12.5 million was a nice fringe benefit, but helping his son on his way to a coaching profession meant more to Tom Brady’s former offensive coordinator.

It worked. Florida Atlantic head coach Lane Kiffin hired Weis Jr. as his offensive coordinator, ESPN reported this morning.

“He’s way ahead of his time in how he sees the game, his football IQ and just his overall intelligence,” Kiffin told ESPN. “He’s been around the game with his dad being a coach, a lot like I was when I was growing up, and has a bright future.”

Monte Kiffin, a defensive assistant for eight different NFL franchises, works on his son’s staff.

In hiring Charlie Weis, Jr., Lane Kiffin has the youngest offensive coordinator in the nation. Charlie Jr., 24, worked as a student assistant under his father at Florida, where Charlie Sr. was offensive coordinator, and at Kansas. Charlie Jr. graduated from Kansas in 2015.

Charlie Jr. worked under Nick Saban as a non-recruiting offensive analyst in 2015-16 and then worked for the Atlanta Falcons as an offensive assistant.

At KU, Charlie Jr. earned a reputation as an intelligent, hard worker with a more low-key personality than his father.

At his introductory press conference, Charlie Sr. shared aloud his fantasy: Turn around the KU football program in five years or so and then turn it over to a more affordable Weis, Charlie Jr. Sure, Jr.’s name put him on the fast track, but he’ll make or break a career on his own. Players and coaches who came to know Weis Jr. as nice, hard-working young man will be rooting for him.