Alabama football eyeing former Auburn coach for staff: Report

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Alabama football went to The Plains to find its replacement for JaMarcus Shephard.

Derrick Nix, who spent the 2024 and 2025 seasons as the offensive coordinator and running backs coach at Auburn, has been hired as Alabama‘s new wide receivers coach, according to 247Sports and On3.

Nix led Auburn to the 11th-best scoring defense in the SEC, a unit that averaged 26.75 points per game in 2025. The Tigers averaged 373.92 yards per game overall and had the second-worst passing game in the conference at 197.08 yards per game.

Shephard was named as Oregon State’s next football coach.

Nix was the wide receivers coach at Ole Miss from 2020-23 after 12 seasons as the Rebels’ running backs coach. He also spent five seasons at Southern Miss from 2003-07.

Nix was a freshman All-American running back at Southern Miss and was a three-time 1,000-yard back, the only player in Conference USA history to do so. He was a two-time first-team All-Conference USA player in 1999 and 2002.

Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama football eyeing former Auburn coach for staff

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