Pete Golding opens Ole Miss era in Kiffin's shadow — SkimNews
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- Pete Golding was named Ole Miss head coach Nov. 30 after Lane Kiffin left for LSU, inheriting a roster mid-portal-meltdown, an offensive staff splitting time between Oxford and Baton Rouge, and an enraged fan base.
- Golding led Ole Miss to two College Football Playoff wins before coaching a regular-season game — beating Tulane in the first round and stunning Georgia in the Sugar Bowl — before falling one play short of Miami in the semifinal.
- Golding is literally living in Kiffin's old Oxford house after buying it from him; Kiffin said he could still watch Golding through the Ring camera and later told him to swap it out.
- Golding keeps two notebooks labeled "because of" (what worked under Nick Saban and Kiffin) and "in spite of" (things he called "complete wastes of f---ing time"), and has already scrapped Kiffin's sideline basketball-dunk celebration as an ankle-risk distraction.
- Ole Miss launched a Heisman Trophy campaign for Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy with billboards in Times Square and on the Sphere in Las Vegas — something athletic director Keith Carter said he wished the school had done a year ago, when "the story was Kiffin. Always Kiffin."
- Golding faces tampering allegations from Clemson over his pursuit of linebacker Luke Ferrelli, which Golding has neither admitted nor denied, instead warning the NCAA will "find a lot more skeletons than just his" if it starts digging.
- Ole Miss opens the 2026 season against Louisville on ABC at 7:30 p.m. ET, with a Week 3 trip to LSU already framed by Carter and Golding as the game that will define whether the program has moved past its former coach.
Why it matters: Golding's first full season is the first real test of whether Ole Miss can sustain playoff-level success without Lane Kiffin, and the Week 3 LSU game is already positioned by Carter and Golding as the referendum. Because the roster is still mostly Kiffin's, early results will determine whether Golding is credited for inherited talent or blamed when it underperforms — and two CFP wins bought him goodwill, not a long leash.
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