What we know, kinda know, and don’t know: Pete Golding era edition

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Roughly 48 hours after Ole Miss beat Mississippi State to secure their place in the college football playoff, a tale as old as time took place.

The head coach was escorted from the Manning Center to expedite his journey to LSU, and the defensive coordinator became the 40th head coach in program history and the first head coach in program history to have his opening game be a playoff game.

You know, standard, boring procedural stuff.

What followed was a scramble to retain assistants to limit the efforts of a large adult baby trying to wreck Ole Miss’ playoff chances. And that’s exactly what it was, despite all current and future whitewashing attempts.

The large adult baby, after accepting the reality* he was not going to coach Ole Miss in the playoff, threw a hissy fit, and the intent was to inflict as much damage as possible on Ole Miss because he didn’t get his way.

So he extorted his offensive assistants. Go with him now to Baton Rogue, or there’s no job for you in 2026. That’s the sort of super chill approach you learn in hot yoga when you’re annoying the shit out of everyone else there.

*Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter told Lane Kiffin weeks ago there was no chance he would coach a playoff game if he was leaving, and Kiffin refused to believe it. In Kiffin’s defense, after 6 years of never being told no at Ole Miss, he assumed he could break them down to say yes.

As I wrote last week and Pete Golding said as much in his speech to the team, whatever happened since the Egg Bowl doesn’t change what the 2025 Ole Miss team can accomplish. Everything they want is in front of them.

They went 11-1 to earn the right to be 4 games from a national title.

What we know

Assistants

As you’ve read , the entire defensive staff is staying through the playoff. Quarterbacks coach Joe Judge, offensive line coach John Garrison, running backs coach Kevin Smith, and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. (more on this later!) will join them.

That means Ole Miss is without a tight ends coach and wide receivers coach, which is not ideal. It’s unclear if Golding will fill those internally with people already in the building, go outside the program, or call the guy who sits behind you at games and knows exactly what plays they should’ve run.

All things considered, it’s about as good as you could expect in the short term. Whenever Ole Miss’ season ends and there are like 8 seconds to breathe, we’ll see which short-term solutions become long-term solutions.

Home playoff game

On Tuesday, Ole Miss found out they will host a first-round playoff game. Despite the desperate narrative to drop Ole Miss because Kiffin bailed on an 11-1 playoff team, the Rebels checked in at number 6 in the playoff rankings.

If Alabama were to win the SEC Championship game, Ole Miss could get bumped to 7th, but spots 5 through 8 will host first-round games. Given the 6th spot is pretty advantageous in terms of matchups, let me join the chorus and say:

WHO’S THAT COMING DOWN THE TRACK? IT’S THE MEAN MACHINE IN RED AND BLACK.

GO DAWGS.

[barking at small children]

Regardless of Ole Miss’ spot, the atmosphere for the game will be like if electricity was hopped up on PCP.

What we kinda know

Charlie Weis Jr.’s status

Weis will be Ole Miss’ offensive coordinator for the playoff experience, but what happens after that is in a gray area. How gray of an area, you ask?

To quote Fletch, “charcoal.”

Despite Kiffin saying he and LSU were letting Weis return to Ole Miss (and Weis’ own hostage note), Keith Carter noted they have been in discussions with Weis about returning for at least the playoff with the potential he also stays in 2026.

In fact, after Kiffin extorted Weis into getting on the plane, Weis actually had leverage over Kiffin and LSU in that he could’ve told them I get to do this or I walk.

WELL, WELL, WELL, HOW THE TURN TABLES…

Whatever the circumstances for Weis’ return, it’s a massive development for Ole Miss. Kiffin and Weis were a combination* playcaller, and the voices most familiar to Trinidad Chambliss.

*They never explained how they worked together, but all signs point to Weis calling plays, and Kiffin either overruling him/taking over at times or agreeing with him. If you ever watched Kiffin when Ole Miss had the ball, it was clear he and Weis were in constant discussion.

Dan Casey, an elite follow on Twitter, preaches that the most important relationship in sports is the one between an offensive playcaller and his quarterback. Without Weis, Ole Miss would’ve had to pray someone else could’ve established trust and comfort with Trinidad Chambliss in less than 3 weeks, which is why an outsider never made sense unless things got super desperate.

In addition to Weis, Judge and analyst Fisher Ray will be there. Judge is Chambliss’ primary contact on the sideline (and Chambliss loves him), and Kiffin mentioned Ray multiple times this season in having a hand in game planning.

Again, not ideal, but with Weis, Judge, and Ray, some degree of familiarity and trust is there for the offense.

Time management

Now that Golding is the head coach, he has responsibilities that will eat into his time in defensive game planning and meetings. He will likely run the defense at least through the playoff, but he’ll have to lean on defensive assistants more than he usually would.

No idea how that arrangement will work, but it’s something new they’ll have to figure out in the next 2-plus weeks.

What we don’t know

A comprehensive list

Deep breath:

• How does everyone (coaches and players) respond to this insane change? Bought in or unsure?
• Does Weis have full autonomy in games? He never had it with Kiffin, and does Golding bring Judge into the mix or interject himself?
• Outside of in-game calls, how much does Golding involve himself in offensive planning?
• Since he’s now the head coach, Golding will be on the sideline, so what’s the situation in the booth? Does someone move up there or who becomes his eyes up there?
• How much Widespread gets played at practices now?
• Will Golding average more “aights” per minute than peak Nick Saban*?

*Shout-out to Jimmy Sexton’s boy for publicly saying Ole Miss should let Lane coach the playoffs and privately telling him to take the LSU job, while painting Lane as the victim. When it comes to frauds who once coached in the state of Alabama, at least Tommy Tuberville can use the excuse he’s a moron.

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