Derrick Nix Talks the Transition from Running Backs to Receivers Coach
Derrick Nix was a running backs coach at Ole Miss for 12 years.
Arriving in Oxford in 2008, Nix has survived three sets of head coaching staff turnover. Through that whole time, he had always coached running backs.
Until now. Now, on his fourth Rebel coaching staff, Nix is making a transition. He's now coaching wide receivers.
"Growth doesn't happen in comfort. You're real comfortable doing running backs. You know it like the back of your hand and you played it. For this opportunity to come up like it did, and to do it at Ole Miss," Nix said on this week's RebTalk. "To me, this is just the evolution of it all. Moving on to another spot, I'll bring a lot of my football knowledge to the receiving room as well as learning a lot of what they do day in and day out."
It's not that he's only ever coached running backs. It's just that it's what he's done every year since 2004. As a graduate assistant, Nix coached tight ends and defensive backs.
He then coached three years at Arizona and one at New Mexico, all at the running back spot, before showing up to Oxford in 2008.
But Nix is clearly looking forward to the change. And he's excited about the opportunities his new room will see in the new-look Ole Miss offense.
"I'm really excited overall about the opportunity. I'm loving the offense that we have here, with coach (Jeff Lebby)," Nix said. "I think it's going to be very wide receiver friendly and put them in a position where they can have an opportunity to make plays and effect the game. That's got them really fired up as well, working a little bit harder and staying a little bit more focused."
He'll inherit a room that may have some talent, but outside of Elijah Moore is very unpolished and unheralded.
Moore, coming off a All-SEC Third Team season, lead the team in receptions, yards and receiving touchdowns last year. Everyone else has the skills but simply haven't produced.
Now a senior, Braylon Sanders was a former four-star recruit who has never caught more than 16 balls in a season. Then there's a trio of sophomores that were four star recruits – Jonathan Mingo, Demarcus Gregory and Dannis Jackson – that really need to make second year leaps.
Nix will have to do his best to draw more out of this group than the staff one year ago did.
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