Kiffin just had to troll Golding after the Ole Miss defense’s forgettable first play of the season

The first play from scrimmage in 2023-24 for Pete Golding and the Ole Miss defense went about as poorly as possible.

The Rebels, in their first season under Golding, gave up a 75-yard touchdown on a quarterback keeper. And, naturally, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, always a willing and eager troll, just had let Golding hear about it over the in-game headsets.

“First play was great,” began Kiffin, making his weekly appearance on RebTalk, his coach’s show with David Kellum, the voice of Ole Miss sports. 

“It was great after that. It was kind of like a set-up, you know? Get the worst thing over with first? Here’s the bad news.”

So, what, exactly, did Kiffin say to Golding?

“‘We paid a lot of money for you,’” Kiffin cracked. “‘This is not going to go over well with the administration.’  But then they only had like 17 yards rushing or something after that. 

“We’ll take it.”

Not only that, Ole Miss never again let Mercer reach the red zone, let alone the end zone.

The Bears the rest of the way only generated 160 more yards of offense.

“Good to be 1-0,” Kiffin said. 

The Rebels offense, meanwhile, scored 73 points in an absolute rout — the seventh-highest single-game point total in school history and highest of the Kiffin era. The mark is also the 18th highest all-time in the SEC.

Ole Miss again amassed at least 600 yards of total offense. The Rebels have now done so 21 times under Kiffin, who was hired in December of 2019. Ole Miss football has been around since 1893. The Rebels managed 16 such games, ever, pre-Kiffin.

“I was really proud of all three phases of the game,” Kiffin said.

The largest student crowd ever assembled for an Ole Miss football game took in the blowout, including a record for freshmen of over 4,000.

“Really played a complete game, especially for so many new players and some new coaches, too,” Kiffin said.

Butch Dill | USA TODAY Sports

One of the phases, of course, being Golding’s defense — the first play notwithstanding.

Golding is Ole Miss’ third defensive coordinator in as many seasons. He replaced Chris Partridge following a three-year stint as Nick Saban’s DC at Alabama. 

Golding has never had worse than a Top 30 defense as a coordinator.

He also coaches linebackers. Among his pupils in his first Rebel season is true freshman Suntarine Perkins. Perkins led Ole Miss in tackles (9) in his college debut.

“That’s a good sign,” Kiffin said. Perkins was a rare On3 Five-Star Plus+ prospect for the 2023 recruiting class. He was the No. 1 player in Mississippi. 

“True freshman, first game, to lead the team in tackles? And he was playing an outside ‘backer, so it’s not like people were missing tackles in front of him. 

“So, that was awesome to see.”

Ole Miss (1-0) kicks off against Tulane (1-0) Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2.

The post Kiffin just had to troll Golding after the Ole Miss defense’s forgettable first play of the season appeared first on On3.