‘Pete Golding has a lot on his shoulders’ for Ole Miss to meet CFP expectations in ‘24

On3’s JD PicKell and Jesse Simonton on Wednesday selected a handful of their ‘Most Important People’ for the College Football Playoff race in 2024-25.

Their pick for Ole Miss? Second-year defensive coordinator Pete Golding.

“The next step for Ole Miss, for me, is can they play not elite defense, but more-than-solid defense?” PicKell began. “Ole Miss is going to be much better on that side of the football, obviously, with what they did through the portal. They have guys coming back like Suntarine Perkins and Jared Ivey. They’ve got some dudes on that side. 

“If Pete Golding can maximize that talent, I think Ole Miss could be a very real player when it comes to making a playoff run.”

Ole Miss has signed a Top 6 transfer class each of the last three years. The Rebels were No. 1 nationally in 2022. Their haul this off-season finished third, headlined by Walter Nolen (DT, Texas A&M), Princely Umanmielen (EDGE, Florida) and Antwane ‘Juice’ Wells (WR, South Carolina).

CBS, earlier this week, floated Umanmielen as a preseason candidate for SEC Defensive Player of the Year. PFF believes Umanmielen to be ‘one of the best’ players in the country. He’s already seen as a potential first-round NFL Draft selection.

“I’m kind of in the see-it-to-believe-it camp with Ole Miss and (fifth-year head coach) Lane (Kiffin),” Simonton said.

“He’s a guy that’s historically done really well at winning games he’s supposed to. But his teams in general seem to get sliced through like a nice piece of sourdough. We saw them lose by five touchdowns to Georgia. They couldn’t do anything against an Alabama team that was really kind of spinning its wheels at that time of the year.

“But the additions of Walter Nolen and Princely Umanmielen and other pieces (like Arkansas linebacker Chris ‘Pooh’ Paul), and now this is Year 2 for Pete. He certainly made some strides with that unit a year ago.”

Golding now shares DC duties with former Rebel Bryan Brown. The Rebels won a program-record 11 games last season and finished in the 40s nationally in points allowed. PicKell has Ole Miss ranked No. 5 in his preseason Top 25.

“You see some of the defensive improvements and success rate run defense,” Simonton said. “But now can they do that against the likes of at night against LSU in Baton Rouge. Georgia, yes, it’s going to be in Oxford. But that’s going to be a loaded offense that probably has as many dynamic playmakers at tailback, tight end and receiver as any in the country.

“Pete Golding has a lot on his shoulders. Lane’s basically said, ‘This is your deal. I got you the groceries; you need to make it cook.’ Let’s see if he can make it happen.”

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