Ole Miss Ties Run Deep in Indiana's Program

Five members of the Indiana coaching staff have all worked at Ole Miss at some point in their respective coaching careers.

Dylan Wallace | Dec 22, 2020

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana's opponent on Jan. 2 will be familiar to a number of coaches on the Hoosiers' staff.

Head coach Tom Allen, defensive coordinator Kane Wommack, safeties coach Jason Jones, receivers coach Grant Heard and senior director of recruiting Lee Wilbanks have all previously worked at Ole Miss during their coaching careers.

Heard actually played wide receiver at Ole Miss from 1996-2000, then worked as the Rebels wide receiver head coach from 2012-2016.

"I was fortunate enough to get to play football at Ole Miss and even more fortunate to have been able to go back and coach," Heard said Tuesday. "My brother still lives there with his family, I met my wife there and have many friends still there, so there are a lot of great memories and I would not change it for the world."

Heard was actually recruiting Ty Fryfogle, who is from Mississippi, to come play for him at Ole Miss. But when Allen became the head coach at Indiana in 2016, he brought Heard over, and because Heard had a good relationship with Fryfogle already, he chose to come to Indiana.

Fryfogle was named Big Ten Receiver of the Year this season.

"I was going to take him at Ole Miss before I left and because of our relationship he followed me up here to Indiana," Heard said. "The hard work that he has put in has worked out for him, but I always thought he had the potential to be a very special player."

Jones is the most recent addition to the Hoosier staff from Ole Miss. Jones worked with Allen on the defensive side of the ball in 2013-2014.

Mississippi Rebels co-defensive coordinator Jason Jones reacts after a defensive play against the Texas Tech Red Raiders during the fourth quarter at NRG Stadium on Sept. 1, 2018. — Mississippi Rebels co-defensive coordinator Jason Jones reacts after a defensive play against the Texas Tech Red Raiders during the fourth quarter at NRG Stadium on Sept. 1, 2018 :: Troy Taormina/USA TODAY Sports

Just last season, Jones was the cornerbacks coach at Florida Atlantic University, where Lane Kiffin was the head coach. Kiffin is now the head coach at Ole Miss.

"I learned a lot from him as far as just the football side. All those years he spent at Alabama with coach Nick Saban, a lot of the things that he learned there to structure a program in the way that practice is structured," Jones said on Kiffin. "He is a sharp football coach. He is detailed, but he is going to give you a formation. He is going to run an offensive play, and he is going to have plans A, B, C, and D. If the defensive does this, we are going do this."

Kiffin's offense at Ole Miss is currently averaging 40.67 points per game this season.

The Rebels are 4-5 on the year, but their offense is good enough to give any team problems.

"I think what Coach Lane Kiffin and (offensive coordinator) Jeff Lebby do offensively is cutting edge, and I think they are ahead of the game right now in terms of offensive fire power, and they are explosive," Wommack said. "They are dedicated to it, which I think is a big part of creating explosives on offense."

Wommack was a grad assistant at Ole Miss from 2012-13, and he said some of his biggest takeaways from being there was learning how to create a good culture.

Even though there is a lot of Ole Miss connections to this Indiana team, the Hoosiers aren't going to let that cloud the mission they are on right now.

Heard said he is just happy the team has a chance to go out and play another football game, and that game just so happens to be against Ole Miss.

"I have a job to go down there and prepare Indiana as much as possible, and get my guys ready to go, and go win this football game," Heard said.

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