After Lane Kiffin’s abrupt exit from Ole Miss, Pete Golding is now officially the 40th head coach for Ole Miss football. He certainly has a lot to prove, especially as this would be his first time acting as a head coach of any team. He used to be a defensive coordinator for the Rebels under Kiffin, but chose to stay at Ole Miss after Kiffin left for LSU.
Despite being a first-time head coach, Pete Golding already has over a decade of coaching experience, mainly as a defensive coordinator, though he has also served as safeties and linebackers coach earlier in his career. He started coaching as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Delta State, in 2006, before taking over as its defensive coordinator in 2010.
He soon left his alma mater to become the defensive coordinator for Southwestern Louisiana from 2012 until 2013, before finally moving to Southern Mississippi as the safeties coach. He would then move again, this time to UTSA, coaching there both as the inside linebackers coach and defensive coordinator between 2016 and 2017.
His first big break came in 2017 when he was hired by none other than the legendary Nick Saban to coach as the inside linebackers coach for Alabama from 2017 to 2018. He would then serve as the Crimson Tide’s defensive coordinator from 2019 to 2022. He would leave Tuscaloosa for Oxford, working under fellow Nick Saban protege Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss, also as a defensive Coordinator, before finally getting promoted as head coach.
With Lane Kiffin gone, Pete Golding faces a tall task as a first-time head coach in the CFP, though he could actually turn out to be far better than what many expect should hge win against Tulane on Saturday.
Pete Golding Says Players Are Focused ‘On The Mission, Not The Man’
Pete Golding has been talking a lot since taking over as the head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels, and with the CFP coming up, he says that his team is remaining focused and has already moved on from Lane Kiffin.
“I think this group is focused on the mission, not the man,” he said.
Golding is not changing things up over at Ole Miss, as he is expected to continue running Kiffin’s offense that got the team eleven wins and the No. 6 seed in the CFP.
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