Competitiveness burns in the belly of football coaches.
It doesn’t just show up under the lights on Saturdays. It’s ever-present. Whether it’s in the living room of a recruit, late at night in the film room or in the sweltering August heat during fall camp.
It’s about winning and losing.
Lane Kiffin, Charlie Weis Jr. and Pete Golding wore the same colors in Oxford, but they dueled daily at practice — Kiffin and Weis’s offense versus Golding’s defense.
On Saturday, they’ll square off from opposite sidelines when LSU and Ole Miss play in the most highly anticipated game on the SEC’s calendar.
“Obviously there’s a lot that you know about them on both sides,” Golding said. “Them about us, us about them. So, there’s a very big database of going against somebody for three-and-a half-years, every spring, every fall camp, all the scrimmages. So, I think it’s really easy to overthink things, as well, and try to have a plan for everything they’ve ever done under the sun.”
Golding was hired by Kiffin in January of 2023. The native of Hammond left Alabama’s dynasty to settle in Oxford where he’s said he wanted to raise his children. Three years later, he’s the head coach after a whirlwind in November and December that saw Kiffin bolt for Baton Rouge and Golding assume the top job in time for the College Football Playoff.
“I always remember when we went to hire (Golding), I was researching him because I actually didn’t know Pete,” Kiffin said. “I just knew how well he had done. We were talking about hiring him away from Alabama, and someone in common that we know said to me, ‘you know, when Nick Saban interviewed Pete…He said it was the most impressive interview that he had ever seen.’”
Kiffin’s first Ole Miss defense ranked 126th of 127 FBS teams in 2020. That improved to 97th in 2021 and 75th in 2022. Golding’s arrival propelled the unit to 70th in 2023 and up to 14th in 2024.
Paired with Kiffin’s offense, Golding brought a championship-level defense on Saturdays but also on the practice field. The two often bounced ideas off each other as to what looks and concepts gave the other trouble.
Now they’ll match wits with elevated stakes.
“I think in this way it just benefits them more than us in the coaching way because Pete sat there and, for the years we were together, and would hear me say what we don’t like to play against. Because as a head coach on that side of the ball, (Nick) Saban and I are much more going to tell them what we should play, things that cause us problems than the coordinator is going to tell the head coach, if that makes sense.”
Kiffin recalled his 2020 matchup with Saban when his Rebels piled up 647 yards and 48 points. Alabama countered with 63 to win the game, but Kiffin knew where to prod his old boss.
“When I worked for Saban, I think after I left, it benefited me as the coordinator, the opposite side of the head coach much more than it benefited him,” Kiffin said. “Meaning, we went to go play, like when we first played, it’s the COVID year or whatever, and it’s 60 to 50 (actually 63-48) because I had listened for three years to all the things he would teach us that he didn’t like, and then we end up using it.”
As much animosity and vitriol that awaits Kiffin, it won’t come from the opposing head coach. Golding has repeatedly stated how grateful he is that Kiffin gave him the opportunity at Ole Miss.
That competitive spirit will no doubt be fully present in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. But this is about the Xs and Os as opposed to settling some sort of vendetta. Golding said Monday that he hopes the people of Oxford, and the Ole Miss fan base, will be raucous and rowdy in the stadium but respectful at the same time.
It’s a fine line.
“From a friendship standpoint, I developed a really good relationship with (Kiffin) for over three-and-a-half years, from a football professional standpoint,” Golding said. “We don’t bounce ideas off of each other, anything like that, like we used to. But I definitely receive a text, or I’ll text him or a call, about other stuff that you know that goes on and things like that. So, definitely still friends.”
