Hotty Toddy - Gosh Almighty
by GEORGE SOMERVILLE
THE TOUCHDOWN’s SEC CORRESPONDENT
For a football program that is supposedly in disarray, Pete Golding did an awesome job at SEC Media Days, making sure we all understood Ole Miss football is in good hands. Actually, not just good hands but the right hands.
If you’ve read my piece on Jon Sumrall’s time in Tampa, you know how impressed I was with the Gators’ new Head Football Coach. To my mind, Coach Golding was the other coach who rocked Media Days. He was superb.
Which means Rebels’ fans should be excited for the season ahead. Golding and his players think this can be another excellent year for Ole Miss football.
But can Golding not only repeat last year’s success but also go one step further and reach the National Championship game in Las Vegas? Let’s investigate…..
Reaching the mountain top
Let’s reflect a little on last season so as to put the job Golding has done in perspective.
The 2025 season was a record-breaking one for Ole Miss football. A 13-2 winning record (7-1 in conference), winning a Sugar Bowl and within one score of making it to a National Championship final game. This was the closest to the mountaintop that the Rebels have ever achieved in their history.
And yet the storyline continued that Kiffin left Oxford to chase greater riches in Louisiana with the LSU Tigers.
Even writing that statement highlights the oxymoron that, on the face of things, it is.
Which inevitably leads us back to Kiffin. Golding knew the question was coming.
Ghosts of Head Coaches past
“Look, you know, I get this everywhere we go” Golding told the media present in the Main Room during Media Days.
“We’re on our caravan tour right now with Ole Miss, so we go every Tuesday and Thursday and take a couple players and go around the country. We go Q and A with everybody, so everybody is, tell me how you really feel about him” Golding continued.
Although to be fair its the question we all wanted to ask of the Ole Miss Head Football Coach.
“Lane and I are good. I did not know Coach Kiffin prior to taking the Ole Miss job. I wasn’t at Alabama when Coach Kiffin was. I didn’t come to Ole Miss because of Coach Kiffin. I came to Ole Miss to be at Ole Miss to raise three kids”.
Now, while Rebel fans have every right to be nervous about a Head Coach waxing lyrical about how great Oxford is to raise a family, Golding was convincing in his oratory. Although so was Kiffin.
I’m certain Golding desperately wants to draw a line under this narrative and get on with coaching. But realistically, this storyline isn’t going away anytime soon, especially when Kiffin and his team roll into Oxford on September 19th. But fair play to the Rebels’ head coach, who is trying so hard to bring this episode to a close.
“I have no ill will towards Coach Kiffin. He texts me on a regular basis and there are certain things we’ll talk about and certain things we don’t talk about”.
“I can separate the two. Some people can’t. I tell a lot of these people — I probably shouldn’t say this, but I don’t care, all right? Like I told an Ole Miss group the other day, all right, in 2021 if you said you could look in 2025 and you’re about to be 11-1 and go to the playoff, would you take it if your coach was leaving? Hell yeah. You would. Everybody won from it. It’s okay”.
Point well made, Coach. Let’s get onto football.
Defense wins Championship
Of course, the Rebels’ head coach is right. It is time to move on. And if Ole Miss are to replicate the success of last season, their defense has to bring the juice right from the start. Golding has never shied away from the fact that he didn’t want to leave his job as defensive coordinator.
“when I made the transition and I knew I was still going to call the defense by talking to other people and that’s really the only reason that was keeping me from taking a head job, was I loved being a coordinator” said Golding about taking the Head Coach job.
While the job was a hard one, it became harder when Ole Miss lost Princewill Umanmielen to LSU after Kiffin defected for Baton Rouge. Umanmielen is a coup for LSU and a loss for the Rebels. He led the Rebels in sacks last season and leaves a hole in the heart of Golding’s defense. However, Golding and his staff moved to replace the talent lost on the defensive side of the ball.
Blake Purchase, a 4-star, comes from Oregon and is an instant replacement for Umanmielen. However, Purchase will have to fight for his place on the D-Line with Nevada transfer Jonathon Maldonado. Kam Franklin, Will Echoles and Suntarine Perkins are known commodities in this Golding defense and provide consistency as well as being very skilled position players. This is an impressive unit.
Purchase arrived in January from Oregon after playing 35 games over three seasons with the Ducks, so he brings experience at a high level.
At Media Days, Coach Golding had high praise for this year’s defense…
“Definitely have a high ceiling and I think has the ability to be better and more talented than the ’24 defense was”.
Which is praise indeed.
Trinidad returns
This time last year, no one was talking about Trinidad Chambliss. Yet in any other year where Fernando Mendoza did not have a once-in-a-lifetime season, Chambliss could have won a Heisman Trophy.
And then his eligibility ran out. Chambliss’ future was in the NFL. Or so we thought…
The NCAA ruled that playing football at D2 Ferris State had exhausted his eligibility. Chambliss thought differently, and the ensuing legal challenge against the NCAA ruling dominated the offseason headlines. Until that is when Lane Kiffin boarded that plane to Baton Rouge. Ultimately, Chambliss won his court case. Well, to be accurate, he won a stay of execution, which will allow him to play football this season and declared his intention to suit up for the Rebels this year.
But Ole Miss fans still couldn’t relax. Would their superstar QB jump ship and follow his coach and mentor to Baton Rouge?
Turns out Chambliss wanted to repay the loyalty Ole Miss showed him, and he elected to stay in Oxford. Ole Miss fans are ecstatic.
Meaning everyone is talking about this Rebels offense. Not only did Ole Miss hold on to Chambliss, but superstar running back Kewan Lacy returns, also making up perhaps college football’s most electric partnership.
A heisman pairing
It’s not unusual for schools to support their players in Heisman campaigns. Especially in these self-promoting, revenue-generating times.
However, Ole Miss firmly believes that they have as good a chance this year as any of having a Heisman-winning season.
In mid-July, Ole Miss kicked off a joint Heisman campaign for quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy. Both players walked into SEC Media Days with an air of hype – helped significantly by the widely held view that Chambliss is the best returning QB in college football.
Last season, Chambliss passed for 3,937 yards, and Lacy rushed for 1,567. Chambliss scored 22 touchdowns and Lacy 24. This explains a lot as to why Ole Miss performed so well last year. Having them both return in an offense which is going to look a whole lot like last year gives the Rebels huge hope.
“The standard at Ole Miss is winning a national championship, but we can’t get too ahead of ourselves” Chambliss told the assembled media in Tampa.
“Last year is last year. That’s done with. Nobody cares about what we did and what we accomplished last year”.
This must be music to Rebels fans’ ears. There is no Kiffin flair to this team. It’s all business.
H6I5MEN x NYC
However, questions continued about his Heisman prospects. Unfair? Maybe. But understandable given that it was still talkin’ season and Ole Miss had just launched a very public marketing campaign.
“We just like to work hard. Really can’t get too caught up on the outside noise, stuff that’s outside of our football facility because at the end of the day that’s out of our control” smiled Chambliss who must have been getting tired of these questions but didn’t show it. Unflappable.
His teammate and Heisman counterpart, Lacy, was a little more open to talking about the Heisman campaign. Kewan Lacy seemed to revel in the spotlight. Both players rocked their trademark Oxford bow ties, but only Lacy had the audacity to accessorise with sunglasses.
“Of course, me and Trinidad have a great relationship. We came in at the same time, basically, with no experience, and we both played throughout the whole season” Lacy said.
“So just being through the journey together and having the Heisman campaign together, I feel like it’s amazing having him by my side and us pushing each other to be the best we can be to reach our goals.
He means a lot to me. I feel like even if I win or he wins, I feel like we’re both going to win. It’s not a competition with us. I feel like the main goal is always going to be the main goal, and that’s to push each other to be the best we could be because that’s going to put us in the best position as a team to get what we want”.
This week the Heisman chat was kicked up a notch. I assume the Ole Miss NIL collective, rather than the University, took a leaf out of previous schools’ campaigns by hiring a Times Square billboard to spotlight their star players. Regardless of whose idea it was, it sent a message. To the rest of the SEC and to college football.
THE STRENGTH OF THE WARRIOR
It is always going to be difficult to replicate or improve upon a record-breaking season. In many ways, all of the pressure is on Pete Golding’s shoulders. A winning season is almost expected, but a losing season or failing to live up to expectations fuels the fire that Lane Kiffin was the mastermind behind the success and was right to jump ship. Which is all very unfair.
For what it’s worth, I’m not sure that Golding cares or is worried about this. Frankly, he has got better things to worry about.
But what are the chances for Ole Miss to make the Playoffs again?
challenging schedule
Well, the schedule is not without its challenges. It’s a 9-game SEC schedule, for goodness sake. Certainly everyone is obsessed with the week 3 matchup when Kiffin skips back into town for his revenge game. And to be honest, that is box office.
Ole Miss will certainly fancy beating the Tigers in Vaught-Hemingway under the lights. The atmosphere will be electric, and the Tigers really will be going into the lion’s den in what is being billed as a revenge game.
Thereafter, the headline games on the schedule are Texas (road), Georgia (home), Oklahoma (road) and then the Egg Bowl in Oxford. The schedule also includes facing Florida in the Swamp, Vandy in Nashville and Auburn & Mizzou in Mississippi. So all in all, this is not a kind schedule. This could as easily be 8-4 as 10-2, but this is when the faith in the roster has to manifest into reality. In the same way that Texas and Georgia have to do the same. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the rest. Expectations are high in Oxford.
strength of the warrior
So let’s have the last words from Coach Golding, who talked about the attitude of his team. He sees it every day and is confident that they are tackling the season the right way
“I think they’re wired the right way” said Golding in Tampa. “I love how they work, and they enjoy playing for each other which is not normal. You know, I think to me the strength of the warrior is the warrior next to him. Everybody doesn’t believe in that, but I think this group does.
Golding has a huge job on his hands, and he knows it. But you know what? He really impressed me in Tampa. There will be no Kiffin-like shenanigans in Oxford under Golding. It will be hit ’em in the mouth stuff from the get-go. Much like Golding’s defenses over the years.
As some other coach once said…”Get your popcorn ready”.
GEORGE SOMERVILLE
COLLEGE FOOTBALL WRITER
GEORGE IS A LONG STANDING FANATIC OF LIFE AND FOOTBALL IN THE DEEP SOUTH AND WRITES HIS WEEKLY COLUMN CALLED “IT’S ONLY SEC” FOR THE TOUCHDOWN. HE IS ALSO CO-HOST AND ONE THIRD OF THE COLLEGE CHAPS PODCAST, THE UK’S FIRST PODCAST DEDICATED TO THE COLLEGE GAME.