It didn’t take long for Kevin Smith to realize his career had jumped to another level entirely upon his arrival in Oxford.

If you didn’t know, the former FAU running back coach was on the plane that brought Lane Kiffin to Oxford leading up to the head coach’s official introduction at Ole Miss.

Coming from FAU, after excelling on the field as a star running back for UCF, Smith quickly learned coaching in the SEC was going to be a completely different experience for him.

Here’s what he had to say about landing in Oxford with Kiffin for the first time and seeing all the fans greet them at the tarmac.

“It was an experience,” Smith says in the video below. “It’s a lot different than FAU. FAU was great, but just the [Ole Miss] fan base,  it was, you know, my first welcome to SEC football [moment] and seeing how passionate Rebel Nation is and seeing how passionate the people of Oxford are about winning and championship coaches.  It was great.”

There may have been a ton of fans waiting to greet the coaches on the tarmac in Oxford, but Smith likes to joke that he was so recognizable, the Ole Miss fans probably confused him for a bodyguard for the new Rebel head coach.

“I joke with Lane, I had on an all-black suit with a white shirt and a black tie,” Smith added, “and I kind of looked like a security guard.”

Check out the interview with Smith courtesy of Ole Miss Football’s official Twitter account.