When Derrick Nix was named Auburn’s offensive coordinator and running backs coach on Jan. 17, the news first came unconventionally. Ole Miss, his former employer, announced the move in a post to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Ole Miss’ announcement that Nix would become the offensive coordinator at Auburn came five days after a post on X from Lane Kiffin suggesting that Nix wasn’t leaving.

“I think that’s just me being me,” Kiffin said when asked about his online antics at SEC Media Days on Monday from the Omni Dallas. “I don’t do much coach speak, but I certainly don’t on Twitter.”

“I was with him for four years, so I totally understand where he’s coming from. He was just doing everything he could to keep his program as strong as possible,” Nix said of the post in March.

Kiffin’s post wasn’t enough to keep Nix around, and five days later the announcement came that he was reuniting with Hugh Freeze at Auburn.

Nix spent 16 years at Ole Miss, previously working with Freeze from 2012-2016. Over that 16-year span he spent 12 years as running backs coach and the last four as wide receivers coach.

His receiver room at Ole Miss last season was one of the most productive in the country, with the top three receivers combining for 2,556 yards. Ole Miss was also one of only three teams in the FBS with three receivers to go over the 700-yard mark.

“He’s an incredible coach who’s looking to not only make you a better player on the field, but to make you a man,” said Ole Miss’s leading receiver in 2023, Tre Harris. ”One thing he always harped on was that football does end at some point. You have to be a family man and you have to be a man of God.”

Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart lit up when asked about working with Nix, offering similar praise as Harris.

“I loved Coach Nix,” Dart said. “Great man and somebody that our team and guys really looked up to so Auburn made a really good hire.”

As running backs coach at Ole Miss, Nix helped produce multiple talented backs such as Dexter McCluster, Brandon Bolden, Jaylen Walton and others.

He now takes over a talented Auburn backfield that returns Jarquez Hunter, Damari Alston and Jeremiah Cobb, and looks to help rejuvenate an offense that ranked last in the SEC in passing offense and ranked in the bottom five of the SEC in scoring offense.