Pete Golding is not looking to just be the head football coach at Ole Miss. The first-year Rebel frontman has made it abundantly clear that he wants to be an active member of the community and to ensure that his team’s presence is felt both on and off the field.
Ole Miss football hosted its first “Meet the Rebels” since 2019 on Saturday, with Golding and players signing autographs and engaging with fans in attendance in a packed Manning Center. The event did not take place at any point during now-LSU head coach Lane Kiffin’s six-year tenure with the program.
For Golding, who was promoted from within after formerly serving as the team’s defensive coordinator, capitalizing on an opportunity to be in the public eye alongside his players was a no-brainer.
In Golding’s first three seasons with the program, the Rebels boasted a whopping 22-1 home record, something that is virtually unheard of in the SEC. To whom does he credit much of that success? The fans.
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium has experienced multiple record-setting crowds in recent years, highlighting the elevation of the Ole Miss football program. Golding, aware of how important his team is to Rebel faithful, wants his players to recognize the value of the fans’ support, and to also soak in each moment they’re considered celebrities across Oxford, because those moments will not last forever
“Over a three-year stint since I’ve been here, we’ve lost one home game,” Golding told reporters on Monday. “That’s because a lot of people in that stadium have created an environment and an atmosphere that’s really hard to play in. And you’ve got to give back to people who give to you, in my opinion.
“I think that’s been lost at some places. I think, at the end of the day, we’re all a kid deep down inside. They actually enjoy it. For Trinidad [Chambliss], for all of those guys that had lines outside the door, there were big smiles for their autographs. I told them, ‘There’s going to be one day, it’s going to be sooner than later, that ain’t nobody going to want your damn autograph, so you better enjoy it.'”
Building on momentum of a historic season
Ole Miss is coming off arguably its best season in program history. The team was one play away from waltzing into the national championship, though that effort fell just short in a four-point Fiesta Bowl loss to title runner-up Miami. Now, the team is looking to continue that success but without Kiffin, the coach who inarguably played a vital role in laying a winning foundation.
The good news for Golding going into his debut campaign as the program’s head honcho is that a plethora of players from last year’s squad — notably quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy on offense and linebacker and defensive end Suntarine Perkins, defensive tackle Will Echoles, and defensive end Kam Franklin on defense — are back, which, to him, makes it easier to sell a championship vision.
The challenge, however, is ensuring everybody is pulling in the right direction, especially newcomers from the prep ranks and transfer portal. But with the team’s recent history and veteran leadership intact, Golding is confident his group will develop a unified mindset when the fall rolls around.
“I think we’ve got a nucleus of guys that have a goal and really know that they want to increase their value and try to compete for a championship. And they know that they don’t get to do all that,” Golding said. “You do all that [expletive], you’re not going in the first round. You’ve got to give up a lot of things.
“In my past, when you come off of a year like we had, and you’re there, if you finish, you have an opportunity to do what you want to do. And if you don’t, I think it makes everybody look back in the mirror again. It’s like, ‘Alright. What are we willing to give up?’
Golding is confident in his team’s leadership, even though he admitted that he loses sleep on Friday nights knowing things could go awry at any given moment. Still, he truly believes that there are good young men in that locker room, ones who will be a positive influence on their peers. However, there is still an aspect of individual responsibility and accountability that the coach is working to instill in his group as a collective to be mature enough to refrain from activities that could prove costly for the team.
“I think we’ve got a lot of really good leaders in the locker room. I think we’ve got a lot of really good kids who have good intentions. But, at the end of the day, they’re still young, and there are a lot of times where people, like myself, make decisions that we wish we wouldn’t have,” Golding said.
“I think it’s really about understanding, ‘What do you have to lose?’ Some of these people that we associate with don’t. And so I think [there’s] that self-discipline piece, and that’s hard, when they read about how good they are — when they go everywhere and take pictures and sign autographs.”
Focusing on one day at a time
With the spring practice period quickly coming to an end and summer camp on the horizon, Golding wants his team to be in the moment, focusing on perfecting its craft one day at a time. He knows there is a lot of hype around the program, and for good reason. He knows his players are on social media and see what is being said about them — both good and bad.
Golding is well aware that a Sept. 19 home matchup versus Kiffin and LSU will likely have the highest viewership of any game of the regular season. He is cognizant of the outside noise and the buzz being drummed up by spectators. But, for Ole Miss to live up to expectations, Golding believes his players need to steer clear of distractions and focus on being better each day.
He further contends that his team, talent-wise, will be able to match up with anybody in the nation when the upcoming season approaches. But he is concerned that, if the mindset isn’t sound, the team is vulnerable to self-sabotage, something he desperately wants to avoid.
“My biggest thing to them is to stop focusing on the wrong [expletive]. When we start worrying about the LSU game, and everybody’s talking about that, you’ve got to worry about Louisville — and you better worry about what you’re doing right now, the development of every day and what you’re putting into it,” Golding said.
“We’re not circling a game. Because, for us, we feel like we’re talented enough that, if we do it the right way, prepare the right way, practice the right way, and if we don’t beat ourselves, we’ll have a shot.”
Ole Miss will begin the 2026-27 campaign versus Louisville in Nashville’s Nissan Stadium on Sept. 6.
