Pete Golding looking at Georgia football when it comes to rebuilding Ole Miss

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NEW ORLEANS — When it comes to building the new Ole Miss football era, defensive coordinator-turned-head coach Pete Golding is looking at who does it the best right now and who has done it the best on a consistent basis.

For him, over the last several years, without a doubt, it's been Kirby Smart and Georgia. It was the same as the Alabama run with Nick Saban.

"Every offseason when you're at Bama, every coaching staff comes in, everybody wants to know what the hell are y'all doing different and all those types of things," Golding said Wednesday, Dec. 31. "I think, at the end of it, it's recruiting really good players. Having toughness and discipline in the program. Surrounding yourself with really good people who are smarter than you. And staying on the cutting edge of things."

To be a top team, you have to be exciting to watch. The Bulldogs are a prime example.

Golding never planned to be a head coach. It wasn't something he grew up saying. He's always been someone who is where his feet are, he said, and he's going to do his job to the best of his ability, no matter the description. For a long time, he'd been adamant about staying in one place as defensive coordinator, collecting success, much like Smart, and he sort of got that when he spent 2018-2022 at Alabama as the defensive coordinator.

"It was a goal of mine, while I watched him do it," Golding said of Smart. "I was not in a rush to become a head coach. … Once I left Alabama, came to Ole Miss, I wasn't leaving Oxford. I didn't want to be the head coach at Ole Miss. I wanted to be the defensive coordinator at Ole Miss. That's the same thing I told (Lane) Kiffin. But this opportunity presented itself. It's nothing that I've been preparing for."

Smart spent 2008-2015 under Saban as the defensive coordinator for the Crimson Tide. Even now, with Georgia, he spends more time on the defensive side of the ball for the red and black than he does anything else.

"I have a lot of respect for what Pete's done," Smart said. "It's a little unique, because I spend a lot of time on the defensive side for us. I'm usually looking at other team's offenses, which has not been Pete's forte of mine.

"When you're crossing over and you watch other people play, you're usually watching their defense to see what they did to stop somebody. … Throughout the years, Pete's done a tremendous job defensively and now he's got an opportunity to kind of form and mold a program in his eyes how he wants to do it. He's been around some really good ones."

Golding said coaches like Smart, Saban and Kiffin prepare you for these moments every year. It wasn't like he was taking over and starting fresh with the Rebels.

"Like Coach Smart always says, this thing's already rolling," Golding said.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Pete Golding calls Georgia football prime example for a top team

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