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SCOTTSDALE — Pete Golding showed up Wednesday with the same posture he’s preached since the day everything flipped: keep it simple, keep it steady, and spot the ball.
Ole Miss is one win away from the national championship stage. The Rebels (13-1) will meet Miami (12-2) on Thursday night at State Farm Stadium in Glendale (6:30 p.m. CST, ESPN) with a shot at playing for the title on Jan. 19 in Miami Gardens, Florida. But before any of that could matter, Golding had to spend his final pregame media availability navigating the topics that have swallowed January football: portal chaos, staff movement, roster retention, and the continuing aftermath of Lane Kiffin’s exit.
Golding answered it all. He didn’t dodge it. He didn’t dramatize it.
But the message underneath every response was the same: Ole Miss didn’t travel to Arizona to host a symposium. They came to play football.
And in Golding’s world, the method is non-negotiable.
“I think the big thing is departmentalizing things,” Golding said.
“When we’re in the building, it’s ball. …I think the focus when we’ve been in our building preparing and practicing has been on the right thing. I think all the other things we can’t control, we don’t concern ourselves with.“
Pete Golding
Staff Questions, Same Standard
One pressing question–at least in the media — is about the Rebels’ staffing — specifically, how Ole Miss handles a semifinal week with assistants juggling obligations elsewhere.
Golding confirmed that former Ole Miss assistants Joe Cox (tight ends) and George McDonald (wide receivers) are not with the team in Glendale. Meanwhile, Kevin Smith (running backs) and Charlie Weis Jr. (offensive coordinator) — now formally aligned with the former Rebels’ head coach now at LSU — remain in place for Ole Miss during the playoff run.
Golding didn’t pretend the situation is normal. He simply explained reality, bluntly and without excuses.
“They have another job that is paying them,” Golding said. “They have a responsibility. At this time, with the way the calendar is now, and I wasn’t going to get into this, they have 35 guys (at LSU) that are in the portal and they have to build a team. Do they want to be here? You’re damn right they do, but again, the situation that it is, they’ve got a job to do and they’ve got to build a team where they’re at.”
What Golding did want to emphasize is this: Ole Miss has enough capable hands in the building to keep the machine running. In fact, he said he walked into an offensive meeting Wednesday morning and saw a room filled with coaches — some familiar, some added — all aligned on the same goal.
“I walked into the offensive room this morning, and there’s nine guys that have been here all year in there. And there’s four more added to it. There’s 13 guys on the offensive staff room that nine of them have been here all year. I think we got enough guys to be able to coach and know the system and do it the right way. My motto has been to keep it as routine as possible. That’s been the whole thing the entire time.“
Pete Golding
The Calendar Is Broken — But Ole Miss Is Still Playing
If Golding has a frustration right now, it isn’t Miami. It isn’t the stage. It’s the timing.
He didn’t hide how absurd it feels that a College Football Playoff semifinal can collide with the most volatile transfer window of the year — while the regular season includes open dates and tune-up games that don’t carry the same roster stakes.
In the joint press conference earlier Wednesday, Golding made it clear he expects offseason conversations about fixing the system. For now, everyone is living in the same mess — and Ole Miss is choosing to treat it as motivation.
“I look at it as a benefit. A lot of guys right now are going to be sitting at home watching this game. Our guys have the ability to go out and play again. That’s what they want to do.”
And he framed the week the way coaches do when the stakes are as high as they get: eliminate regret.
“But to look at one game in the face, like, all right, I’ve got one week. Yes, I’m tired… Yes, I’m beat up… But I’ve got one week to where if I can do everything I possibly can do to leave out the ‘my bads’ and the ‘wish I would haves’ for one week, to have the opportunity to compete for a championship…“
Pete Golding
No Speech for Kiffin. No Statement for Critics.
Predictably, the question came: does Golding have a message for the former head coach — or for everyone who thought this would collapse the second that former coach walked out on his team?
Golding didn’t take the bait. He didn’t deliver a cinematic monologue. He gave the most Golding answer possible: the team already spoke, and he’s not interested in speaking to anybody else.
“I don’t have a message for anybody else. I think our team had a message by how they prepared and how they played and that they weren’t tired of playing. I do think the message is I’m replaceable, you’re replaceable, our players are replaceable. I think you want to build a program where it’s headed in the right direction and one person or one player is not going to derail that. There’s been too much invested in that and it’s been aligned correctly that one person was not going to impact something so drastically. If it is, it’s probably not built right. It’s a team game. There are so many people that go into it. The timing of when it happened, in my opinion, it couldn’t have happened at a better time for the players because everything was already in place. Everything was on the track. It’s headed in the right direction. We’ve got really good players. There’s already a culture created. They knew the expectation. The only thing that was different was who’s running them out of the tunnel and to be honest with you, I don’t think the players give a damn who runs them out of the tunnel. They care about their plan. They care about getting held accountable and how they prepare. And they care about people who care about them. I think that’s been the message our players have created. And I don’t have shit to say to anybody else.”
Pete Golding
Trajectory Over Trophies
Golding also leaned into a theme he’s repeated throughout this transition — and he repeated it again Wednesday: Ole Miss isn’t recruiting off a museum tour. They’re recruiting off direction.
He tied the Rebels’ retention and portal wins to buy-in from the top — administration, community, and investment — and he noted that the pitch sells itself when the product is real.
“I think it speaks to the whole community,” Golding said. “I think it speaks to the administration. I think it speaks to the collective. It’s been very obvious to me, even when I wasn’t at Ole Miss yet, the direction that they wanted to go and that they were going to invest into it to get it there. Then when you hire good people and recruit really good players and there’s vertical alignment from your chancellor to your athletic director to your coach, I think it’s just a matter of time.”
Then, he sharpened it — not naming anybody, but making his meaning obvious.
“A lot of people recruit based on tradition. We recruit based on trajectory. A lot of those places, they go show them Heisman trophies. They go show them national championships. Nobody in that damn building won them. It’s where it’s at right now and what’s the direction that it’s heading. Our guys see that. The recruits see that as well.“
Pete Golding
Cristobal — who typically keeps his tone measured — didn’t ignore the moment, offering a public nod to the job Golding has done steering Ole Miss through turbulence while staying on course.
“I have followed (Golding) for a long, long time,” Cristobal said. “We’ve known each other a little bit, but I’ve followed him. I have tremendous admiration and respect for his work over the years and knew he was going to be a head coach. But to be able to navigate all this during this time and still have the type of success that he is having, I think, man, it’s off the charts. It’s awesome.”
Now It’s Time
Golding knows how this week works. There’s always noise. There are always distractions. There are always people trying to turn a football game into everything except a football game.
But Ole Miss didn’t survive the last month by drifting into the chaos. They survived it by shrinking the world down to the next rep, the next meeting, the next play.
And now, with Miami standing between the Rebels and the sport’s final stage, Golding’s focus is exactly where you’d expect it to be.
“I think every year is pretty chaotic,” Golding said. “You find a way. You’re not looking for excuses and you’re not thinking about everything else. You’re looking for solutions.”
That’s it. That’s the posture. That’s the plan.
The talking is done.
Now Ole Miss gets to do what it came to Arizona to do — spot the ball and go earn another win.
