The lack of minorities in head coaching and front office roles has been a glaring issue for decades with no clear cut solution.
In the NFL, the Rooney Rule has been around for two decades that requires NFL teams to interview at least one minority candidate, but there has been no shortage of criticism in that approach, especially as of recent with many feel like organizations are simply "checking the box" in interviewing a minority candidate at times.
The league has also recently tried incentivizing hiring minority head coaches and front office personnel by offering additional draft picks, but the vast majority feel like we're still falling short.
Of the 133 FBS head coaching jobs, just 14 are filled by minority head coaches, which comes out to about 11%.
This off season, it seems like head coaches have taken matters into their own hands to provide opportunities for guys on their staff to step into the role of head coach.
Last week we shared how Mike Vrabel provided assistant head coach / defensive line coach Terrell Williams the opportunity to get his feet wet as a head coach by allowing him to take on the role during their preseason game against the Bears.
Lane Kiffin decided to take a similar approach this weekend with wide receivers coach Derrick Nix, a college coaching veteran who has been at Ole Miss since 2008, working with the running backs through the 2019 season before moving to receivers the last few years.
Kiffin and Nix switched roles for 24 hours, allowing Nix to serve as the Rebels head coach not only in their scrimmage on Saturday but also handling some other important head coaching duties, while Kiffin stepped into the role of receivers coach for the day.
After the scrimmage, Kiffin was asked about the role reversal, and shared some great perspective.
"24 hours ago, he became the head coach for a 24-hour period. That was done, not as a PR thing, that was really done to give him an opportunity to see what it's like."
"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 would say, 'I'm just telling you, there are more Tony Dungys, there's more Lovie Smiths, there are more Mike Tomlins that never get that opportunity."
"It hit me when I was discussing this, you look around and you see the SEC, and you see these schools coming in from the Big 12, and we're in 2023, and between the SEC and the Big 12 we have no minority head coaches, and that is really unfortunate."
"Not that I am going to be able to change that, but to be able to give someone an opportunity to do things like speak in front of the team, to handle media, to handle the pregame meal, to handle the injury reports and then go out there today and manage the scrimmage and mock game, I think was really good for him, and sometimes you don't get a chance to see how good someone is until they get a chance to do it."
"That would be my wish out there to ADs and presidents and universities to understand that, and coach Nix is a good example here, we've been fortunate to keep him here, he's had a lot of opportunities to leave, and today you saw a whole 'nother level out of him. I was inspired after listening to him this morning."
"I just hope coaches like coach Nix in this profession - black coaches that don't get opportunities - start getting opportunities, because it is ridiculous, when we're talking about two major conferences right here in this area, and when whatever it is, 80% of our players are minority, but we have all white coaches, It's really a system that needs to be fixed."
After Kififn, Nix takes a turn at the podium as well, sharing how pumped up he was when Kiffin presented the idea...so much so that he had to remind himself it was just a scrimmage when he could't sleep at 3am.
Hear more from Kiffin and Nix in the clip, and here's to hoping that this is a movement that catches on among head coaches, and athletic departments and ADs start to take notice of these types of opportunities.