Ole Miss expected to hire former Alabama wide receiver

The Ole Miss Rebels are expected to add a former Alabama wide receiver to Lane Kiffin’s staff. According to On3’s Matt Zenitz, Ole Miss is hiring Kevin Norwood to the Rebels support staff.

“Ole Miss is expected to hire former Alabama and NFL wide receiver Kevin Norwood in a support staff capacity, sources tell @on3sports,” Zenitz tweeted. “Had been working at Louisiana as a quality control coach.”

Norwood played at Alabama from 2010 through 2013, hauling in 81 career receptions for 1,275 career yards and 12 touchdowns. He was then selected in the fourth round of the 2014 NFL Draft by the Seattle Seahawks. Norwood only played in ten games during his NFL career. Nine of those were in 2014 as a rookie in Seattle, where he caught nine passes for 102 yards. He then played one game with the Carolina Panthers in 2015, and spent time in the Chargers and Giants organizations before his playing career came to an end.

Adding Norwood is the latest change to the Ole Miss coaching staff

Earlier in the offseason, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin was linked to some other head coaching jobs around the nation as the coaching carousel continued to take some wild turns seemingly every day. Ultimately, Kiffin stuck around and signed a contract extension with the Rebels, giving him and the rest of his coaching staff significant raises.

Kiffin’s new deal is worth $7.5 million per season, and Ole Miss has a staff salary pool of $3.5 million for his assistants. That is a commitment of more than $11 million to the Ole Miss coaching staff for this upcoming season.

Among the changes, Charlie Weiss is the new offensive coordinator, taking over for Jeff Lebby. The Rebels also have added a new running backs coach in Marquel Blackwell. Chris Partridge, the Ole Miss co-defensive coordiantor, received a big raise north of $1.2 million per season.

This past season, Ole Miss went 10-2 in the regular season, including a 6-2 mark against SEC opponents. The Rebels then lost to Baylor in the Sugar Bowl, 21-7.

On3’s James Fletcher contributed to this report.