Ole Miss announced Friday that two Rebels assistants are officially staying on with Lane Kiffin. Freddie Roach will hold the titles of assistant head coach, defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator. Derrick Nix will be Kiffin’s wide receivers coach. All of Kiffin’s other staff hires so far have come from outside the program.

Roach joined the Ole Miss staff in 2017 after previous serving as Director of Player Development at Alabama, his alma mater, in 2015 and ’16. Kiffin was Alabama’s offensive coordinator during those two seasons. Roach’s Ole Miss bio notes that he was a four-year letterman at linebacker for the Crimson Tide from 2002-05, during which time he was named the National Freshman of the Year, a freshman All-American, was twice selected second-team All-SEC and named to Alabama’s All-Decade Team for the 2000s.

Nix coached running backs at Ole Miss for the past 12 seasons (2008-19). Nix, who is known as a top recruiter in the SEC, replaces Jacob Peeler, who left to take an offensive coordinator position at Texas State.

It appears Kiffin will be going with Kevin Smith as running backs coach. Smith’s official title at Ole Miss is currently only “Assistant Coach,” but he was Kiffin’s running backs coach at FAU.