Derrick Nix discusses his experience as Ole Miss head coach during scrimmage

For a day, Derrick Nix was king. On Saturday, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin allowed the wide receivers coach to act as the program leader during the team’s intrasquad scrimmage. Nix won’t forget the experience anytime soon.

“I had to remind myself that, ‘Hey, this is a scrimmage,’” Nix said. “I couldn’t sleep. When coach Kiffin gave me the news earlier that day, the initial thought was pumped up, excited. Got in the staff meeting room and had what I wanted to say, but my voice was crackling because it was my peers. Got a chance to regroup with the coordinators and said, ‘Hey let’s put up a plan on what we want to do.’ …Obviously, a lot to learn.”

While the scrimmage went as expected, Nix felt something special. At 43 years old, Nix is entering his 16th season on the Rebels’ coaching staff. Nix spent his first 12 seasons with the program as a running backs coach, before heading up the team’s wide receiver unit for the past four years.

This offseason, Kiffin promoted Nix to associate head coach and, for 24 hours, let him run the show alone.

“That was really done to give (Nix) the opportunity to see what it’s like,” Kiffin said after Saturday’s scrimmage. “I remember my dad telling me a long time ago, ‘Be very grateful for what you have because this has not been a good profession at all for minorities.’ 

“He used to say all the time, ‘There’s more Tony Dungys, there’s more Lovie Smiths, there’s more Mike Tomlins that never get the opportunity.’”

Nix has an opportunity to contribute to greatness this season. After beginning the 2022 campaign on a seven-game win streak, Ole Miss lost five of its final six contests. With 24 incoming transfers, the Rebels have a chance to make up for the disappointing season and then some.

Nix wants to give back to the place that has given him and his family so much.

“Ole Miss is basically the fabric of my family too,” Nix said. “My daughter, all she knows is red and blue. My wife, we’ve gotten a solid foundation with Ole Miss and outside of it with this community. It’s been nothing but a plus for me.

“I have to remind myself that I didn’t graduate here,” Nix said. “Sometimes, I feel that way. It’s like, ‘Man, did I grow up here?’ Every now and then, Coach Kiffin will remind me, ‘Hey, you’re a Mississippian.’ I said, ‘No, coach. I grew up in Alabama but all my adult life has been here in Oxford or Hattiesburg.’”