Lane Kiffin explains why he made Derrick Nix head coach for scrimmage

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin raised some eyebrows when he stepped back to wide receiver coach and had the Ole Miss wide receiver coach, Derrick Nix, play the role of head coach for a scrimmage in Fall Camp.

As Kiffin explained, there was a good reason for this. He wanted to give Nix more experience because he feels there should be more minority coaches given opportunities to become head coaches in the sport than currently get that chance.

“Twenty-four hours ago, he became the head coach, you know, for a 24-hour period,” Lane Kiffin said. “And that was done not as a PR thing. That was really done to give him an opportunity to see what it’s like, because you can’t have experience — like with a quarterback, you can’t tell he has experience going in there. Alright. It’s the only way to get experience.

For Kiffin, this belief goes back to wisdom that his dad, Monte Kiffin, has shared with him.

“I remember my dad telling me a long time ago to be very grateful for what you have because this has not been a good profession at all for minorities. He used to say, there’s more Tony Dungy’s, Love Smith’s, Mike Tomlin’s that never get the opportunity. It hit me when I was discussing this, you look around the SEC and the schools coming in from the Big 12. We’re in 2023, and between the SEC and the Big 12, there’s no minority head coaches. That’s really unfortunate, not that I’ll be able to change that.”

Notably, there are minority coaches in both the Big 12 and SEC. However, there are no black head coaches in either conference.

Nix got the opportunity to go through all the beats and rhythms of a game as a head coach. This meant that he should be able to use that experience in the future to potentially get a head coaching opportunity.

“But to give someone an opportunity to speak in front of the team, to handle media, to handle pregame meals, to handle injury reports, to go out there today and manage the scrimmage which is like a mock game, I think it was really good for him,” Kiffin said.

“You can’t see how good somebody is until you get a chance to do it. That would be my wish out there to ADs, presidents, and universities, to understand that, and this a good example. Coach Nix has been here. We’ve been fortunate to keep him here. He’s had a lot of opportunities. I’ve enjoyed working with him. He’s done a great job. Today, you saw a whole another level out of him with his intensity in meetings last night and pregame meals with the players, handling depth charts, doing everything.”

Ultimately, Lane Kiffin was impressed by Derrick Nix. In particular, by how he communicated with the team. It’s a reminder to Kiffin that Nix and other black coaches deserve more opportunities, especially in a sport with so many black players in it.

“I was inspired by listening to him this morning talk to the team. It was cool to step back and see that. I just hope coaches like Coach Nix in this profession, black coaches that don’t get opportunities get opportunities because it is ridiculous when we’re talking about two major conferences right here in this area. When 80 percent of our players are minority, but we’ve got all white coaches. It’s really a system that needs to be fixed.”

Derrick Nix has been on the Ole Miss coaching staff for 16 years, long before Lane Kiffin got to Oxford. He previously worked as the team’s running backs coach before moving over to coach wide receivers.

Pete Golding compared Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban

New Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding joined the staff after having the same role at Alabama. Now, he’s compared Lane Kiffin to Nick Saban.

“A lot, to be honest with you, especially in a meeting format. Obviously, they’re both super intelligent. They both demand discipline in the program — in different ways, but they still demand it. But a lot of the mannerisms are very similar within the room,” Golding said.

“I think what Coach Kiffin does a really good job of — I think it’s very easy once you’ve been at that place for a long period of time to go somewhere else and try to run it exactly the same. And it’s not. It’s not the same resources, you don’t have the same people, it’s not in the same place. So what I love about Coach Kiffin, a lot of the things that helped Alabama get to where they are, we do. And there are some other things at every program — not just Alabama — that are probably in spite of. You’re going to win in spite of doing those things.”