Pete Golding proved at the end of the 2025-26 college football season that he has what it takes to be a big-time head coach.
Golding took over for Lane Kiffin when the latter skipped town on the Ole Miss Rebels to become the head coach of the LSU Tigers. Golding was Kiffin’s defensive coordinator, and he got promoted to head coach for Ole Miss’ College Football Playoff run, which lasted all the way until the semifinals before the Miami Hurricanes downed the Rebels.
Many teams would have packed it in when their head coach left, but Golding was able to keep the Rebels together.
Now, he heads into his first full season as head coach, and he had a decision to make. He made his name as a defensive play-caller, but now, he’s in charge of everything to do with Ole Miss football. It’s not just defense anymore.
Golding apparently considered giving up play-calling duties, but ironically, a conversation with another SEC head coach helped him change his mind.
That conversation was with Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables, who was also a top defensive coordinator before becoming a head coach.
“He’s just like, ‘Look, you got that job for a lot of reasons, but the primary reason is you’ve always done a really good job with the defense, and if you’re able to do that, you need to continue to do that,'” Golding recently said, according to Heather Dinich of ESPN. “I still want to be heavily involved and still call it and I enjoy doing that, so that kind of solidified if you’re going to do it, make sure I get really good people around me that can help in the management of things that allows me to watch enough tape to put our kids in a good spot.”
Pete Golding to call the defense for Ole Miss in 2026 after Brent Venables conversation
Golding has long been considered one of the top defensive minds in college football. He was Nick Saban’s defensive coordinator with the Alabama Crimson Tide from 2018 to 2022. He then went to Ole Miss to coach under Kiffin.
This is a huge opportunity for Golding and he’s ultimately going to be judged on what Ole Miss does as a whole. It’s about winning and losing now, and not just defense.
Bryan Brown was elevated to defensive coordinator, and while he has played a big role in running the defense, Golding has realized that he can still be the “CEO” of Ole Miss football while calling the defense in-season.
Venables has tried it both ways at Oklahoma, and it was his input on the matter for Golding that ultimately led to this decision.
“Originally that’s why I didn’t want to take a head job, because I had it in my mind when I was going to take a job I was going to be tired of calling plays and running a room and going on the road and I was going to be more of a CEO and kind of give that piece up,” Golding said. “It always had kind of been my mindset that if you take one of these, that’s what you need to do, and it kind of changed for me to be honest with you when I called Brent Venables.”
