OXFORD | Derrick Nix woke up on Saturday and had to remind himself it wasn’t an actual game day.

He spoke to the team and his voice cracked with emotion. Nix, who has worked under five different Ole Miss head coaches, was the honorary head coach for the nearly two-hour scrimmage inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

Kiffin gave Nix the reins for 24 hours in all facets of the program. He led meetings with the other coaches and the team and organized the practice plan. On Saturday, Kiffin took over Nix’s wide receives while Nix handled the main headset.

“I’m grateful to go out there and be the head coach today,” Nix said. “Very indebted and grateful for that. It doesn’t happen every day… It felt like being at home. I have a lot to learn but it’s an awesome opportunity.”

Nix has been with the Rebels since 2008, and he joked on Saturday he forgets that he didn’t graduate from Ole Miss. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards in three different seasons at Southern Miss.

Kiffin gave Nix the opportunity, in part, to highlight the lack of minority head coaches in the major conferences. Prior to Nix’s media appearance on Saturday, Kiffin said this about the state of minority coaches.

“Twenty-four hours ago he became the head coach for a 24-hour period, and it’s not a PR thing,” Kiffin said. “It’s to give him an opportunity to see what everything is like because he hasn’t experienced it… I remember my dad telling me a long time ago to be very grateful for what you have because this is really not a good profession for minorities and he used to say all the time that there are more Tony Dungys, more Lovie Smiths, more Mike Tomlins that never get the opportunity.

“You look around and you’re in the SEC and a couple schools coming into the (league and then the) Big 12 and we’re in 2023 and between the SEC and Big 12 there are no minority head coaches. That’s really unfortunate and not like I can change it, but to give someone an opportunity to speak in front of the team and the media and handle the pregame meal and injury reports and go out there and manage the scrimmage and mock game. It’s really good for him. You can’t see how good someone is until he gets a chance to do it.

“You need presidents and universities to understand that. We’ve been fortunate to keep him here. He’s had a lot of opportunities to leave and enjoy working with him. He does a great job and today saw another level out of him with intensity and pregame meal and last night with the players and depth chart. I was inspired by listening to him talk to the team. It was really cool to step back and see that.

"I just hope coaches like coach Nix that don’t get opportunities start getting opportunities because it’s ridiculous when we’re talking about two major conferences right here in this area, or whatever it is, and 80 percent of our players are minorities but we have all white coaches. It’s a system that needs to be fixed.”

There have been five black head football coaches in conference history: Sylvester Croom (MSU), James Franklin (Vanderbilt), Derek Mason (Vanderbilt), Joker Phillips (Kentucky) and Kevin Sumlin (Texas A&M).

In the Big 12, Baylor's Dave Aranda's parents are from Mexico and BYU's Kalani Sitake is Tongan.

“I’ve had a lot of great opportunities to do what I do and I’m very thankful for it.” Nix said. “The only way to overcome it is to have guys like Lane Kiffin to give opportunities. It’s not a preseason game, but it’s the closest thing we could do. You see it in the NFL, right now, with guys having the opportunity to showcase other skillsets and what they bring to the table.

"As time goes on, the door will open wider and wider. I’d love to get to the highest level, but it’s not a deal breaker. Control the controllables, the task you’re given to the best of you abilities and let the other things fall in place.”