OXFORD — No amount of formal education could replicate the exclusive apprenticeship that Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin and his counterpart this week, Terry Bowden, both graduated from.

Kiffin and Bowden – in his third season leading the Louisiana-Monroe program – learned the ins and outs of coaching as children and young men. Kiffin's father, Monte, spent decades coaching defenses at the college and pro level, including three years as coach of NC State. Bowden's father, Bobby, won 377 games over the course of an illustrious career, highlighted by two consensus national championships at Florida State.

When Kiffin and Bowden prowl opposing sidelines at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday (11 a.m., SEC Network), they'll occupy familiar roles that they both learned early on. At 26, Bowden became the youngest head coach in college football when he was hired at Salem College in West Virginia for the 1983 season. Kiffin took charge of the Oakland Raiders in 2007 at the age of 31, making him the youngest head coach in the NFL's modern era.

"I think growing up around it was awesome," Kiffin said this week. "I’m very appreciative of that opportunity. You start learning so much at an early age, you’re kind of already going to football college when you’re growing up. I’m very appreciative of that, and well aware that that’s had a lot to do with getting opportunities early on because of that. So, very appreciative of that.”

Bowden and Kiffin applied their degrees from "football college" differently.

Working as a graduate assistant at Florida State before moving on to Salem, Bowden was tasked with self-scouting his dad's Seminoles. He came to know his father's play-calling tendencies better than his father did. So when he landed a job on his own, he knew one way of operating.

"Well, you can imagine that when I became a head coach at 26, I wasn't calling my plays," Bowden told The Clarion Ledger this week. "I was calling his plays.

"It was almost like I was in the perfect place at the perfect time to copy Bobby Bowden as far as how he ran a football program."

His present-day ULM staff still teaches some of the same ideas that Bobby Bowden did – asking their quarterbacks to throw lofted deep balls and requiring wideouts to run slants in a particular way. But, naturally, through a coaching career that also included stops at Samford, Auburn, North Alabama, Akron and Clemson, Terry Bowden poached different ideas from his peers and began to develop his own style.

Kiffin did not have the same experience. When asked to compare himself to his father as a coach this week, Kiffin's first instinct was to say that they're different.

Kiffin's stock exploded because of his offensive prowess, while his father is a lifelong defensive coach.

But, now 26 years removed from his first student assistant job at Fresno State, Kiffin finds himself returning to his father's principles.

"I try to be more like him every year," Kiffin said. "I think he’s an amazing person when it comes to relationships with the other coaches and players and developing them off the field. I just know all of the former players that I know, the way that they talk about him.

"He’s left a legacy and touched a lot of people, so I really try to work on that and I’ve got a long way to go.”

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Saturday's contest between the Rebels (8-2) and Warhawks (2-8) will not be the first meeting between Kiffin and Bowden. The two also clashed in the 2017 Boca Bowl, when Kiffin's FAU team topped Bowden's Akron squad 50-3.

Kiffin harbors a lot of respect for Bowden, highlighting his 20-0 start at Auburn when he took over the Tigers' program in 1993.

Bowden, at 67, noted that he and Kiffin belong to different generations. But the impact of his upbringing is apparent.

"I think Lane's the same way, he's been blessed to have a great father who was a great coach and gave him probably a love and passion for the game at a very early age," Bowden said.

David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.

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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Lane Kiffin, Terry Bowden took football coach path thanks to dads