{"id":1157,"date":"2023-03-27T03:41:17","date_gmt":"2023-03-27T08:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=1157"},"modified":"2023-03-27T03:41:17","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T08:41:17","slug":"greg-mcelroy-shares-optimism-for-pete-golding-at-ole-miss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/greg-mcelroy-shares-optimism-for-pete-golding-at-ole-miss\/","title":{"rendered":"Greg McElroy shares optimism for Pete Golding at Ole Miss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lane Kiffin<\/a> made several splashes in Oxford this offseason. Amongst plenty of major additions<\/a>, though, the biggest may be Pete Golding<\/a> as his hire<\/a> to be Ole Miss\u2019<\/a><\/strong> next defensive coordinator after he spent the last five years<\/a> at Alabama<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In Greg McElroy\u2019s<\/a> opinion, he also believes Golding\u2019s addition will be one of the most impactful for the Rebels by the time it\u2019s all said and done. On Always College Football<\/a> last week, McElroy said the Crimson Tide\u2019s loss is Ole Miss\u2019 gain considering the inconsistency on their defense the last few seasons and Golding\u2019s ability to still make a difference with the play sheet on that side of the football.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at Ole Miss defensively the last handful of years? They\u2019ve kind of been a bit of a mixed bag. They\u2019ve transitioned from one defense to another defense to being a mixed bag of several different defenses,\u201d said McElroy. \u201cPrimarily, Lane Kiffin has tasked his coordinators with don\u2019t give up big plays, keep the ball in front. And, hopefully, when you get to the red zone, you can hold them to a field goal. That\u2019s been the defensive mentality he\u2019s tried to employ.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, that changed a little bit at times last year. And I would expect it to change even more with Pete Golding at the helm,\u201d McElroy said. \u201cPete Golding is a terrific recruiter<\/a>. And, although at Alabama a lot of people ran out of patience with the inconsistencies of the defense, I still think the guy knows how to dial it up<\/a>. I think he knows how to create advantages for his personnel against the opposing offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Kiffin\u2019s three years with the Rebels, his defense has never cracked the Top-50 in the nation. It has steadily improved since his first year when they allowed over 38 points per game until last season when the Rebels gave up 25.5. Still, that phase of the game hasn\u2019t necessarily been their strongest suit in his tenure.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Golding is now on Kiffin\u2019s staff. In his half-decade in Tuscaloosa, he coached a Top-20 defense every season. Over those five seasons, Alabama\u2019s opponents only scored an average of just 18.9 points per game. That includes 2022 where the Tide had their best defense of his tenure as they finished ninth in the nation.<\/p>\n

With all that said, McElroy is worried about the prospects he\u2019s going to have with his new team. While it\u2019s still SEC<\/a>-level talent, he thinks there\u2019s a big difference between what he had at his disposal over the last five years and what he\u2019ll have available to him now.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s the problem. His personnel is not elite. Not like it was at Alabama\u2026There\u2019s no denying that the personnel he\u2019s dealing with in Oxford, Mississippi is not equal to what he dealt with the last handful of years in Tuscaloosa,\u201d McElroy admitted. \u201cSo, Pete Golding, will he run the pattern match style defense? Will he be forced by Lane Kiffin to run some of the defense they\u2019ve ran before? With three-deep zone, keep the ball in front. It\u2019ll be very interesting to see how that all works out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, though, McElroy sees this as a major plus for the Rebel\u2019s coaching staff. From here, it\u2019s up to him to prove it and post the best defense Ole Miss has had under Kiffin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a huge opportunity for Ole Miss,\u201d said McElroy. \u201cI think it was a huge hire for Lane Kiffin<\/a>. And it should be an important move for Pete Golding as he tries to put his own fingerprints on the defense at all three levels.<\/p>\n

The post Greg McElroy shares optimism for Pete Golding at Ole Miss<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lane Kiffin made several splashes in Oxford this offseason. Amongst plenty of major additions, though,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}