TRANSCRIPT: Back Home and Locked In, Pete Golding Prepares Ole Miss for Georgia

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OXFORD, Miss. — This week isn’t just another trip. It’s a homecoming, a test, and an opportunity wrapped into one. As Ole Miss prepares to take the field in the Sugar Bowl with its season on the line, head coach Pete Golding spoke with a sense of gratitude, resolve, and quiet intensity. From returning to Louisiana to lead his team on college football’s biggest stage to guiding a locker room determined to keep playing together, Golding made one thing clear: this moment is earned, and the mission is far from finished. What followed was a candid, wide-ranging press conference that revealed the heartbeat behind Ole Miss’ playoff push — and the man steadying it.

Here’s a transcript of everything Coach Golding said in Tuesday’s Ole Miss Sugar Bowl Media Day. 

COACH GOLDING: Obviously super excited to get down here. The transition yesterday was pretty smooth. Had a couple of practices at home in Oxford. Preparing for Georgia, and then today we’ll have our normal Thursday no-sweat walk-through in the Dome (Caesars Superdome) and follow it up by tomorrow, which we do a fast Friday, get them rolling a little bit, and have our meetings and get ready to go. Guys have been in a good place, working extremely hard, really excited about the opportunity.

Q. Pete, you being a Louisiana native, a Hammond guy, what does it mean to lead this team in your home state with so much history?

COACH GOLDING: Obviously it’s awesome coming back home. A great opportunity for our players. the Sugar Bowl has always done an unbelievable job. It’s a great city to host, great city to play football in, and a great city to eat in as well. But a couple more tickets than normal, with the crew coming over from Hammond. But just super excited

about the venue. Playing in the Dome and it being a playoff game and them earning an opportunity to play again as a team has been really special. To have my brother here and my parents here and all my high school buddies and all that, it will be pretty neat.

Q. With all the airplane fun and traveling and the atmosphere of the College Football Playoff, what do you guys do in this situation to just focus on the game and not let New Orleans and the parade and this big media day get in the way of your focus for winning this game in a rematch?

COACH GOLDING: I think the biggest thing is departmentalizing. When am I focusing and when am I allowed to have some fun? And an opportunity they created for themselves. I think that’s been the big message all week during meetings. When we hit the grass, right, and we’re out there practicing, our focus has to be on the attention to detail to do the things we need to do in order to win the game. During meetings, our in-between meetings and after practice, you’ve created some opportunities for yourself to go out and have fun and enjoy those things. We understand what the mission is. This isn’t a normal bowl game and here’s the vacation and the experience of a long year, and this is your last game. They’re all well aware that they’re playing for the opportunity to play again. I think that mission is a little different. The mission is always above the man.

I think the focus, I think we’ve got some older veteran guys that have really elite leadership that are putting a close grip on some of these young cats, and making sure they’re making smart decisions around here. But their focus has been where it needs to be. This is just an extension of a road game for us. That’s how we’re looking at it. You’re just here a couple days earlier than normal. We’re doing our normal Thursday routine and getting into our normal Friday routine and trying to keep that routine as normal as possible.

They understand what they’re playing for. They understand they can come back to New Orleans and party during spring break. This is not what this is about. I think the focus is on the right spot right now.

Q. Coach, you were on the defensive side of the ball, but can you get into how, over the course of the season, your impressions of Trinidad [Chambliss] have evolved? Both with the change in your role, but also with him taking on such a bigger role?

COACH GOLDING: My impressions of him started in camp. I was going against him, or going against our offense day in and day out because you’re good on good and you’re not game planning for anybody.

We always went ones on twos in scrimmages, so it’s our first defense going against our second offense at that point. Trinidad was with the 2s because Austin was obviously with the 1s. Just the kid’s competitive character in live environments and how he handled the situations and how calm he was; how well he took care of the football. The one thing that really stood out to me is the ability to extend plays and keep his eyes downfield to really affect the other side of the ball.

It’s no surprise to me to where if something was to happen to Austin [Simmons] that we would be in really good hands, and a guy that had a lot of the experience. There’s a quiet confidence in him, even early when he got here. He didn’t say a lot. He just kept his head down and worked extremely hard; was preparing for his opportunity.

I think the big thing for him, when you’re coming to Division II into the SEC and you’re coming to a school that’s offense has already been in place and there’s stability within a scheme, with a guy that’s looked at as the franchise quarterback already, and the things you had to do to keep him — and knew he was coming in as the 2? I think that speaks volumes of his confidence, knowing: I’ve got one year left, I’m going to transfer to the SEC with a system that’s already in place, with a guy that’s been two years in the system at my position. To have that confidence to know, hey, I’m going to come in here, I’m going to learn it, and whenever I get my opportunity, however that comes, I’m going to be ready for it and not lose it. And that’s what he did.

I think the kid’s competitive character is out of this world. I think he’s got a unique personality. I think guys gravitate to him. He’s a dude that you want to be around. Always got a smile on his face. Super positive. So it’s really easy for our players to gravitate to him, number one, by his work ethic. Number two, how he treats other people. And his production on the field speaks for itself. His ability to take care of the football and make really good decisions has continued to improve throughout the year, but that’s something we did see in camp going up against him every day.

Q. You mentioned a time to have fun, a time to focus and work. Part of the fun of this year with Trinidad [Chambliss] added has been the flags we’ve seen all over the campus. Talk about how much your team has registered that phenomenon, how much it’s added to that fun of his personality, and just what you all have made of that evolving this season?

COACH GOLDING: I think it’s awesome when you have a team that’s created this for themselves. That’s the beautiful thing about Oxford, it’s such a small town, Ole Miss is the NFL team. Any individual that has success becomes pretty big pretty quick. The best thing about that, to me, for this team has been he doesn’t let it get to him. He can have fun and they can laugh about it, right, but he’s the same dude the next morning, regardless whether he throws for five touchdowns or not. He’s going to walk in and go to work and all that.

But I think we do have a unique group that can separate when to have fun and when not to have fun. I think that’s really important. I think they engage with our fans really well. They know that’s a part of college football now. A lot of our alumni and fans support and pay for some of these guys through the collective. They get it, they understand their role with it. But I think it’s been really unique for his story, and not coming into it, not highlighted as the guy coming into the season like most of them are, to pop up and have the year he’s having. And he understands he’s having the year he’s having because a lot of other people around him, and those guys in front of him that are doing an unbelievable job and how talented we are in the perimeter. It’s one thing in this offense to be talented on the perimeter, but if you don’t have a running back, it doesn’t matter, because you become one-dimensional. He understands how important [Kewan] Lacy is as part of that success. I think he does a good job sharing the success with those guys. They understand when that flag goes up, it’s all 11. It ain’t just Trinidad. But he does a really good job with it.

Q. Can you speak to the professional challenge of what you had to do with your colleagues and coaches regarding them coming in for this game, and obviously focusing and keeping your players’ minds on the business and the mission at hand?

COACH GOLDING: I think we’re just in a unique time in college football, both players and coaches, based on the calendar. I know a lot of guys have talked about that. But I think from day one, when that opportunity was created for a lot of these guys, it’s going to be no different than every opportunity created for these players once January 2nd hits. They’re going to have every opportunity that they want, if they played really well throughout the season. I think coaches are no different. When you have success and you do a really good job like Coach Kiffin had done here, and the assistants had done here, you’re going to have opportunities. I think it’s everybody’s right normally at the end of the year to evaluate that. Am I in the best situation for me and my family? What do I need to do that’s best for me? I think the timeline was unfortunate, and it’s not their fault. But from the assistant standpoint, I was never concerned, because there was never a doubt from them about them wanting to coach and finish the season that they had promised to the players.

So that was my whole thing, when you’re recruiting the staff: Look, guys, let’s not worry about 2026. Let’s stop worrying about where we’re coaching in 2026 and focus on finishing 2025 the right way for the players. I think from the very beginning, regardless of where they were going to be in ’26, that was their goal. So I felt pretty comfortable throughout the entire process, regardless of whether they were going to be coaching somewhere else next year or at Ole Miss, they were going to finish what they started for our players to create the best opportunity for them. Obviously, we have a good relationship with them on a personal level anyway, so there’s a respect factor, regardless of the chair that you’re sitting in, that they want to do it the right way, not only for their players, but for the other people in the building. Was it a challenge? It was disappointing for me, being the time of it’s Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, leading up to a Wednesday signing day. Instead of talking to recruits, parents and recruits, you’re meeting with grown men and trying to convince them of why they should finish what they started. But other than that, it was fine.

Q. [Kewan] Lacy says he’s ready to go. What have you seen from him in practice? Are you confident?

COACH GOLDING: I couldn’t agree with him more. Excited to watch him go out and play really well.

Q. What concerns you about [Zachariah] Branch, No. 1 on Georgia’s offense?

COACH GOLDING: Him with the ball in space. No, they do a really good job getting him his targets. He’s an extension of the run game. A lot of the smokes and the bubbles and the screen game and all that. Really elusive in space. Still use him in the priority pass, work the one-on-one concepts. Primarily in the slot, like the matchup, they’re trying to get that on a safety or a backer, depending on the coverage you’re in. Move him around a lot to create it, and that’s something we’ve got to be aware of. So you’ve got to have a plan for him.

That’s the balance of their offense on the tight end position, the back. And then you look at the skill, not only him in the slot, but they’re going to have some side speed on the perimeter they’re probably going to give back as well. When you start focusing on one guy, they’re going to do a good job of attacking somewhere else. Mathis an easy game, so numbers are going to be a big part of this game. We’ve got to do a good job of leveraging the ball, and I think that’s the big thing.

The one-on-one on Branch doesn’t always end well. You’ve got to understand if I’m going to miss, where to miss and where my help is coming from. We had double-digit missed tackles, we didn’t leverage the ball very well, we weren’t physical in the perimeter. I think it’s going to be a really important piece to leveraging the ball and having great pursuit inside out to be able to polish the football, because you need to get two-on-one on that guy. But he’s a special player.

Q. Could you talk about your relationship with Kirby Smart? And do you guys, defensive coaches who become head coaches, is there a certain fraternity there?

COACH GOLDING: Number one, the respect factor that I’ve always had for Coach Smart and the job that he’s done every year, whether he was the coordinator at Alabama and I was a young coordinator, Division II, always studying their tape and trying to figure out what they’re doing and how we can increase our package and do it better. Him having been at Valdosta in the Gulf South. When I was at the Gulf South, there’s a lot of that I appreciated about him, about being D-II and working his way up through it and having the success he did.

It was more of a respect factor based on what he’s done and where he came from and how he did it. Obviously, he was a defensive back like I was, some of those similarities, but there wasn’t a friendship of having worked together, really being around him, so you feel like you know him through the people that you’ve worked with. And then obviously, I worked with a lot of guys that work with him, so you feel like you know him probably better than you do, but it’s always been more of a respect factor for that.

To answer the second part of the question, yeah, I think anytime you’re a defensive guy and become a defensive head coach, you want that guy to have that guy have success because you want to create other opportunities for other defensive coaches. For a long time, you felt like that offensive thing was the fling and the hot new OC coming in.

So you just want to do a good job, obviously provide a good product for your players, but we definitely pull for each other, for sure. But as far as from a fraternity standpoint, we don’t have that group message yet, unless Kiff (Lane Kiffin) puts us all in one. But other than that, no, we got to pull for each other.

Q. As you guys were preparing to play Georgia for the first time and Gunner Stockton, from there until after that game was over, did anything about his ability, performance surprise you or maybe you weren’t expecting, or did he do better than you thought he would do?

COACH GOLDING: No, I mean, I’ve always known his wiring and his competitive character and how he played the game and taking — doing a really good job of taking care of the football, and I think he’s really smart and it shows up on tape and he understands coverages and leverage and where to go with the football. That piece of it, we kind of knew what we were getting going into it. I think he’s gotten continually better

throughout the season. And even games they didn’t have success, it wasn’t not based on the ball didn’t go to the right guy or he didn’t read it right or didn’t make the right decision. The accuracy in that game might have been a little off and some of those things, but I know the last time we played them, he made a lot of really good decisions and made a lot of plays, and I think it’s really key for us on base downs to not allow him to extend plays with his legs. You got to create some third and longs by creating negative-yardage plays early so you can have a plan for him.

But they’re really balanced on the run game on base downs, and so it’s tough to account for the run game and him extending plays when they do pass it. We’ve got to be really sound up front and make him be a pocket passer and try to beat us with his arm, which he’s shown the ability to do. And we’ve got to be able to change the picture on him and make him go to a second read.

But he’s a veteran guy. He’s got a lot of competitive character. You can see it on tape. You can tell the guys around him play really hard for him. He’s got a really good demand of the huddle. So yeah, it’s going to be really tough.

Q. Being a defensive coordinator up to this point, you got a good look at Suntarine Perkins, a Mississippi guy who says he’s coming back next year, too. What does he add in a moment like this, even as a sophomore for the team? And you having played at Delta State, also basically a Mississippi guy, even though you were born in this state. What did you learn from playing at Delta State, the Division II level, just like your quarterback played at the Division II level, that applies in such a big D-I moment like the Quarterfinals?

COACH GOLDING: I think number one, we get with Perkins, there’s probably not a more competitive kid on our team. It doesn’t matter whether it’s ping-pong or corn hole. Gets all in. He only knows one way to do it. He was that kid growing up, he was going to be outside playing whatever sport it was until the street lights came on, and that was the time to go home. I’m not concerned with him at all. It doesn’t matter if we’re opening up with Mercer or we’re playing in the Sugar Bowl. He’s got a mentality to where you spot the ball, it’s all exactly the same. I never got to be concerned with his work ethic or his preparation or his energy and effort throughout a game. He’s the least of my worries.

Do we need him to tackle the guy with the ball? You’re damn right. It makes sense that we need him to play really well from an execution standpoint. But his mentality going into it has always been exactly the same.

For the second part of the question, I don’t look at football any different based on the level you’re at. Having been D-II, 1-AA, mid major in the SEC, true competitors, regardless of what the stadium is, regardless of how many people are in the stands, it’s an opportunity to go out and compete in the game that you love and play at an extremely high level to win the damn game. That’s why you play and that’s why they keep score. I think true competitive character, regardless of the level, you’re a competitor and you’re going to prepare the right way. You’re going to practice extremely hard and try to play your best game.

I don’t think anything different in the level, instead of how you travel. How you travel is a lot better. The things you eat are a lot better. Does that make sense? You’re not on the bus league anymore and driving 13 hours to Valdosta. Trips are a little quicker.

Your only concern to me is when you bring in some of those guys, because the moment they get too big, because they get caught up in all the external factors and they’re walking into a stadium for the first time and they’re worried about taking a picture. We’re worried about the wrong shit. Does that make sense? You got plenty of pictures. You can take one after the game. A lot of it is based on a guy’s wiring. He didn’t come to this league based on stadiums. He came into this league to compete against the very best and show everybody that he can do it no matter what the level is. That’s always the thing to me about elite players at D-II and 1-AA, you’re not questioning their ability. You’re questioning the ability of the guys they’re going against. The question is at the next level, he’s going to be going against better people. Can he do that versus better people? It’s not his ability. He was dominant at that level. Then now to come here, he had a chip on his shoulder to prove everybody that he can do it at any level, because that’s who he is.

I think it’s just really important in the recruiting process, regardless of the level they’re coming from, is how they’re wired. I think that’s tough sometimes based on the timeline of how quick the turnover is. And here January 2nd hits, you never talked to him in your life, and then he takes an OV on January 5th and he’s enrolling in school January 16th.

It used to be you were recruiting guys two to three years, and finding a lot about them and their competitive character would come out and you would know. So I think we did a really good job in the transfer recruiting piece of, you better be taking it from somewhere that you know somebody and you respect and you trust their opinion, and you know who you’re getting. Especially once you put money into it and that investment. If you don’t and the money is on the sideline, you’re not going to be very good.

He’s just wired the right way. I think that’s the biggest thing in recruiting right now, guys who are tough and competitive and love football. It’s hard to find some of those guys. A lot of them love what football can do for them, not truly love football and competing and going out to put the best product on the field and increase their value and the team’s value. He’s just very unique from a competitive character standpoint.

Q. What’s been the biggest difference from this offense this year compared to last year when y’all faced Georgia?

COACH GOLDING: I think the quarterback, number one. And obviously the quarterback was a good player last year as well, but the ability to extend plays with the legs in any offense, creates a lot of issues from a defensive coordinator standpoint. Because they’ve got guys on the perimeter that you don’t like matchups and you’re trying to call certain coverages that take away. When you do that, obviously you don’t have a guy for their quarterback.

So you’ve got to be really smart of how you rush him and make sure we’re trying to contain him, which takes away some of those things up front from the bigger guys that are really getting after him.

I would think the biggest thing is that. I thought both of them did a decent job making decisions, even going into last year. There was no doubt they had a really good understanding of the offense. I think Gunner [Stockton] doesn’t try to force as many things at times. I think “careful” is probably the wrong word, but just having a better understanding of the game and knowing how they are and how good they are on defense right now. Let’s protect the football. If it’s not there, let’s extend the play.

Some of the decision-making, I think, has improved. And then the ability to extend plays with the legs.And then the plus-one run game. There’s more design plus-one runs than there was before, and not having to get into wildcat and things like that they had done in the past, and kind of show the hand to do it. All of those are very difficult to defend, especially when you got guys on the perimeter that are very talented and a good front and a good back.

Q. Coach, what are some of the specific dynamics of playing a team twice, now that it’s the second time around you’re going to do it? How do you balance the team you saw on the field in September/October versus what they’re doing now, and maybe trying not to overthink things type stuff?

COACH GOLDING: I think the biggest thing is what you just said, is not overthinking it. Neither one of us are the same team we were when we played there. I think you can get too cute sometimes. There’s a foundation of who you are and what you believe in and the things you got to do to be successful, regardless of who you play. You’re going to continue to do them. Both teams will do that.

There’s a lot of things that you prepare for for a game that you don’t see, that are issues that you have plans for and packages and all that — which helps when you play a team again, because it didn’t show up in your game, but you had already game-planned it, prepped it, had a plan. It’s shown up in games since then, so you still know it’s a big part of it.

So from a preparation aspect, it takes away some of those things. What you’re really evaluating is from that game till now, what are things that other people gave us issues with? We gave up explosive plays and all those type of things that they’re going to try to attack and use.

And then you’re always trying to play the game — the bread-and-butter things they believe in and they’re going to carry every week, they’re going to do. They’re just going to present it a different way. It’s going to be a different shift, a different motion. They’re going to bump the back.

You’re playing much more offensive coordinator when you’re going through practice. Yeah, that’s what they showed last game, but that’s how I think they’re going to show it this game. It’s the same run, but just the picture is different and the presentation is different to try to get you to communicate.

I think you got to go back and obviously there’s a philosophy of what you got to take away. We believe in taking away the bread and butter. Then what’s the complements off of it? I think [Mike] Bobo has always done a good job of complementing his plays and setting things up throughout the game and understanding where you’re at in the field zone and all those and when certain plays are coming.

Sometimes the more you know about people, the cuter you try to get, and you try to overthink things and put too much in the package. Because the call is not going to win this game. The execution of the call is going to win the game. You’ve got to be really sound, you’ve got to be smart. You’ve got to be able to leverage the football. You’ve got to be able to change the picture and make tackles on the perimeter. If we come out of this game like last time and you have double-digit missed tackles, and you have busts on critical downs being two third and longs that ended up being scoring drives where you could have been off the field, you’re not going to win the game — and you shouldn’t.

That’s been the big message to our players. You’re in the playoffs. You’ve got to play your best game.

We’re not asking you to do anything different than you’ve done all year. But you’ve got to be locked in, focused, and be able to execute the call. But I think from a defensive standpoint, we’ve got to be simple, keep it sound, and leverage the football and let our guys play. We got to get the ball carrier on the ground.

Then offensively, continue doing what we’ve been doing. We got to take care of the football and capitalize in the red zone and our scoring drives. We got to create more possessions for our offense than they get. That’s something we didn’t do last time, especially late in the second half. We didn’t give our offense more opportunities than their offense. I think that’s going to be really important in this one.

Q. Talking about the Georgia linemen, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, what makes them so hard to contain and so difficult to just guard against on the line of scrimmage?

COACH GOLDING: First of all, they’re big human beings. They’re really strong, really powerful. Glenn [Schumann] is doing a better job of moving those guys around, moving them up front, doing some more stunts than I think historically been in the past. They got a very good pressure package to create some one-on-ones for those big guys.

I think you really see their explosion and power come up when they get the one-on-one matchups. They’ll just be in tight form, playing man, getting doubled where they can hold the point and let the second level flow and go make some plays and then they’re going to create the one-on-ones. They did a good job from a strength standpoint and getting off the rock and win their one-on-ones. They’ve always been very talented up front and well-coached and they do a good job with their plans. It will be tough for us.

Q. We were talking to Trinidad [Chambliss] about the transfer portal and whatnot, and his advice to younger players and going through that process. When you look at it now as a head coach, what has that been like over the last two to three weeks, trying to prepare for a game, but also at the same time knowing Friday is coming and there’s potential you guys are going to be playing next week as well?

COACH GOLDING: I think that’s the one thing that was different for me being D-II/1-AA mid-major and then coming to the SEC was recruiting is year-round regardless. It’s 24/7, it’s 365. You’re always evaluating the tape or you’re always talking to a prospect or you’re talking to his parents.

So that recruiting piece of it is always year-round, and you’re doing it during the season and you’re making calls on Wednesday nights and you’re doing Zooms and talking ball. You’re always juggling that at elite programs because you’ve got to get elite players to be an elite program.

That piece of it we’ve been doing for a long time now, obviously having gone to Alabama and seeing that firsthand. That was a transition for me, because I was used to in the season, it’s ball. And it’s all ball and it’s about the development of our players and winning the football game, and then when the season’s over, hey, let’s go recruit. It was very segmented, more like the NFL at smaller levels.

It didn’t matter getting on guys early then, you weren’t going to get them. The guys that we wanted to take were thinking they were going to go to Ole Miss or were going to go to Alabama at that point. You’ve got to manage that. Obviously, from a schedule standpoint, you set times throughout the schedule.

Here’s the film evaluation. Here’s the communication to the prospect and his parents from a high school standpoint. And then the portal is very much free agency as far as you’ve already gone by position, what’s going to be our need? And then who do we potentially think is going to be available? There’s not communication with them, but you’ve already evaluated the tape, you’ve already ranked them in order of how you would take them, and now what are your chances to get them, and then financially, does it make sense?

But I think the big thing for us is more — this time right now, it’s more about retention than replacement. I think elite programs and elite teams can retain their best players, and I think that’s really important. You’ve got a bottom half of the roster that are young players you’ve worked your ass off to get there that weren’t ready to play this year but are going to be elite players next year.

And so you’re managing that and the plan going forward of what it’s going to look like for them to be able to retain them or what you signed them in the first place. So for me, the recruitment has been our current roster, because that’s what we’re going to win with or not next year primarily, the foundation of that, the stability of the system staying the same with the players that can play winning football.

And then the ones that can’t, then we go out, obviously, and add to that. And good players want to play around other good players, so the more better players that you retain, they have the ability to help you recruit and do all those things.

I think it’s been really good for us over the last couple of years because we’ve had stability in the system on both sides of the ball. So when a transfer comes in, he’s sitting in a room with other guys that know the system. That’s completely different as a transfer going to a school where it’s a brand-new system, and that coach walks out of the room and nobody knows what the hell to do because it’s a brand-new system. I think that’s been a benefit for us, as far as the systems on offense and defense are staying exactly the same. We’ve got elite players coming back that can help coach and develop those new transfers that come in. So it’s been a system that’s worked.

Q. Coach, how do you keep your student-athletes focused on the main thing, and keeping the main thing the main thing, with regards to all the distractions we’ve talked about it and being in the college playoffs and a bowl game in New Orleans. How do you, leading from the front, through your coaches and your student-athletes, how do you keep the main thing the main thing?

COACH GOLDING: You’ve got to segment. And what I mean by that is from an attention span standpoint, the average attention span for an 18- to 21-year-old kid is 23 minutes. After that, you’re losing them. We’re very short and sweet with things. We’re very specific to where that focus can be on what it needs to be for this allotted time. Let’s learn this and now let’s go walk through that. Now take a break. Don’t think about it. Let’s go. Now let’s come back. That’s how we’ve structured the practice, the meetings, the days since we’ve been here, as far as here’s our block, it’s all ball. Go get away from it. Come back, refocus, all ball. To think they’re going to be like that 24/7, 365, we’re fooling ourselves.

There’s still a part of it they’ve got to get away from it. But when we’re meeting and practicing and doing all those things, we’ve got to have elite focus. The competitive part of the group of them wanting to have another opportunity to continue to play as a team, and what legacy they want to leave. It would be one thing if this is the last game and they know this is the last game. They’re preparing right now for the opportunity to play another game, and they don’t want this legacy to end right now. I think it’s a little different when you’ve got a veteran group that we have, and these seniors that have put a lot into this program and had an unbelievable year. They’re playing for another opportunity for it not to end, and for them to continue to increase their value for the first contract. I think we’ve got a lot of buy-in with that. But I do think it’s very important at times to get away from it. I think it was good that Christmas was where it was. Here’s a two and a half-day break. Get away from it. I don’t want you watching tape, I don’t want you calling me. Go be with your family and then let’s rejuvenate and come back and get ready to roll. I think the biggest thing from that, from the top, be very specific and understand they’re going to need their own time and give them their own time and make it about ball when it needs to be about ball.

Q. Obviously starting next year, you’re going to want to put your own fingerprints on the program and make it your own. How much has this been a balance, though, of not making too much change for the players as you finish up the 2025 season versus sort of setting the groundwork or foundation for what you’re envisioning your program to be moving forward?

COACH GOLDING: I think no different from our players. We talked about compartmentalizing the focus and the fun aspect. For me, I have to compartmentalize: Here’s 2025, here’s 2026. You’ve got times throughout the day and in the morning and at night that you’re focused on 2026, both from a player standpoint and a coach’s standpoint. That’s its own separate deal. And then obviously you have 2025 over here.

As long as there’s a player in the building and our staff is in the building, the focus is going to be on them. When they’re not in the building, then my focus is on making sure we’re putting the program in a place to be successful and continue to be successful.

Just compartmentalizing that. And a lot of those were already in place of guys that you’ve worked with throughout the years, saying: Hey, if you’re ever going to get one, I’m going to be there. You’ve already got a list of a lot of things that’s really easy. Then we got a lot of people in the building obviously to be able to help with that.

A lot of early mornings, late nights, as far as from a ’26 component. We just make sure when the lights are on and the sun is out, our focus is on our current roster and making sure we finish this the way that we need to finish it, and provide the best opportunity for our players to finish it how they want to finish it. I was very big from the very beginning what has been done up to this point has been successful. We’re not trying to change that. We’re all creatures of habit. I think routine is very important. There are some things that we added to the routine that I think can help improve winning and then there’s been some things that we can take away from it that I don’t think affects winning.

But other than that, of the time that we meet and how we practice and how we stretch and all those things, is exactly the same. This is just an extension of what we’ve done up to this point. It’s been good enough up to this point. So it’s been pretty easy. I think the players have respected that. I think they wanted that. So that piece has been pretty easy. We’ll worry about ’26 when it gets here. But I’ve got my own responsibility for ’26 early and late to make sure we’re prepared for when it comes.

Q. Being a Hammond guy, what’s it like kind of being back here near your hometown? And obviously I’m sure growing up, playing in the Superdome would have been a big deal. What does it mean to you being back and also getting to play the biggest game of your career in a place familiar with you?

COACH GOLDING: It’s awesome. Obviously, family is everything to me. My brother lives in New Orleans, just had a little nephew. My kids actually spent the night at his house. They didn’t stay in the hotel room last night. They’re staying with their aunt and uncle. My mom being in Hammond and then being down. As I mentioned earlier, a lot more tickets. Obviously, my old boys want to come to the game, a free trip to the city. So that piece of it is all good. It’s no different than the players. That can be a distraction piece as well if you allow it to be. They’ve done this. They’ve been to a lot of Sugar Bowls that I’ve coached in up to this point. They really don’t care what color I’m wearing at that point. They just like to come and have fun and have a good time. That piece has always been very similar where we’re at. I’m just really excited from the players’ standpoint. I think the Sugar Bowl does an unbelievable job creating a really good environment to play in. And especially when it’s a playoff game on top of it.

I’m just really excited for them to be able to come down and experience that for them. Play in the Dome on a game that’s going to mean so much and an opportunity to play again. But to be able to do it in your home state where you’re from, with the people you love in the stands is awesome, no doubt.