SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Back in early December, when Ole Miss had just promoted Pete Golding to head coach, I received a text message from a friend, a prominent Rebel alum, fan and donor. No, I won’t name him because he did not intend the message for public consumption.
But trust me, 99% of readers would recognize the name.
My friend said he was “deeply troubled” by the hire. He called Golding “a scruffy-looking man with no head coaching experience who was let go as defensive coordinator by Nick Saban at Alabama.”
The writer said the Ole Miss defense had been average during the regular season against a relatively easy SEC schedule. Of Golding’s hire, he concluded: “I don’t like it a bit.”
Well, I did like the hire and wrote as much. This much I knew: Golding, a straight-shooting, down-to-earth guy, would be a refreshing change from his predecessor. But I also wrote that time would tell, that the biggest adjustment in sports was the promotion from assistant coach to head coach. There’s so much involved. Some can handle it, some can’t.
Now then, here we are just over a month later at the Fiesta Bowl, the national championship semifinals. Granted, we are only one month into Golding’s head coaching career, but’s let’s assess. Here’s my Pete Golding report card:
- Game management: A-plus. Ole Miss blew out Tulane, as expected, and then knocked off Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. The Rebels made offensive and defensive adjustments at halftime that were critical to victory.
- Roster retention: A-plus-plus. Not only as Golding dealt with game preparation and hiring a staff, but in this insane era of college football, he has had to deal with the transfer portal and the potential loss of many of his best players. So far, he has lost only his back-up quarterback. Here lately, many of the Rebels’ best players (Trinidad Chambliss, Kewan Lacy, Lucas Carneiro, Suntarine Perkins, Will Echoles, Antonio Kite and others) have announced intentions to return.
- Dealing with the media: Another high A. Golding looks you in the eye and tells you what he thinks. He’s genuine. Yeah, he cusses some. So do I. So do most of us. As Golding has said, “Shit, I’m working on it.”
- Gets along with others: A solid A. Ask his players, ask his coaches, ask his bosses, ask the equipment guys. They swear by him.
- Recruiting: A. Nobody has ever questioned Golding’s recruiting ability. Besides retaining so many of the Rebels’ best players, Golding has Ole Miss easily in the top 10 nationally with the current transfer portal class. The Rebels have attracted players from LSU, Auburn, Florida and elsewhere.
- Cussing: A big C. But, shit, he’s working on it.
- Appearance: Another A. Amazing what a fresh haircut, a beard trim and new duds will do for you. Golding looked positively suave in his stylish navy blue suit Wednesday. He even wore a tie.
Mississippi head coach Pete Golding picks up the Sugar Bowl trophy after defeating Georgia in the Sugar Bowl NCAA college football playoff quarterfinal game, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New Orleans. Credit: AP Photo/Matthew Hinton Hinton
But don’t be fooled. A spiffed-up appearance has not changed who Golding is. “Pete’s Pete,” defensive coach Bryan Brown says. “He’s not gonna change. What you see is what you get.”
The following exchange from a Wednesday press conference will tell you much about Golding.
Questioner: “What message do you have for Lane Kiffin and all those who maybe had given up or lost hope (after Kiffin left)?”
Golding: “I don’t have a message for anybody else. I think our team had a message. They had a message about how they prepared and how they play and that they weren’t tired of playing. I do think the message is: I’m replaceable. You’re replaceable. Our players are replaceable. I think you want to build a program to where it’s heading in the right direction. One person, one player, anything like that, that’s not going to derail that. There’s been too much invested in that; and it’s been aligned correctly, that one person is not going to impact something so drastically. If it is, it’s probably not built right, right? I
“If one coach in any sport can determine the outcome of it, he probably doesn’t have a very good staff, right? If one player can determine the outcome of it, we probably didn’t recruit and create the right depth. Or we didn’t prepare him to be ready for his opportunity. It’s a team game. There’s so many people that go into it. The timing of when it happened, in my opinion, couldn’t have happened at a better time for the players, because everything was already in place. Everything was on the track.
“It’s headed in the right direction. We have got really good players. There’s already a culture created. They knew the expectation. The only thing that was different is who is running them out of the tunnel. And to be honest with you, I don’t think the players give a damn who runs them out of the tunnel. Does that make sense? They care about their plan. They care about being held accountable and how they’re going to prepare. They care about people that care about them. I think that’s been the message our players have created. I don’t have shit to say to anybody else.”
Golding always deflects credit to his players and his staff – and even to the Ole Miss administration and supporters. If his predecessor was a narcissistic diva (and I wrote that he is), Golding is a polar opposite.
So, Wednesday morning, I reached back out to the prominent Ole Miss alum and donor who had been so troubled by Golding’s hiring just over a month ago.
What do you think now, I asked.
“Well, so far he’s proved me wrong,” he wrote back. “I don’t think anyone else could have put us in the advantageous spot we now find ourselves, what with excellent portal and high school recruiting, not to mention the national semifinals. And the players and the national press corps seem to love the man. Who am I to argue with success.”
Again, we are just over a month into Golding’s head coaching career. A lot could change. But, for Pete’s sake, the early returns are simply smashing.
