Ole Miss coach Pete Golding said he will continue to call the defensive plays this year, but it was a decision he wavered on — until he talked to Oklahoma coach Brent Venables.
Like Golding, Venables is a former defensive coordinator who went back and forth on the idea of continuing to call plays, and the Sooners’ head coach has tried it both ways while at Oklahoma. He ultimately decided to stick with his forte while also running the team.
That was enough to convince Golding to do the same in his first full season as the Rebels’ 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 said. “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.”
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Golding was promoted to head coach on Nov. 30 after Lane Kiffin left to become head coach at LSU. Golding had developed a reputation as one of the SEC’s top defensive coaches for nearly two decades. He was former Alabama coach Nick Saban’s defensive coordinator from 2018 to 2022, a stretch that included three SEC titles in 2018, 2020 and 2021 as well as a national title in 2020.
In 2024, Golding’s Rebels led the nation in sacks (52) and tackles for loss (120), both program records. The Ole Miss defense held opponents to 80.5 rushing yards per game, which was second in the FBS and the fewest allowed by a Rebels defense since 1966.
Golding elevated Bryan Brown to defensive coordinator and said Brown has been “running that room” while Golding was focusing on recruiting and other tasks, but they’ve gotten to a point now where they’re both in the room and Golding has time to watch tape together and get ready for practice.
“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.”
