He moved from defensive coordinator to head coach on Nov. 30 after Kiffin abruptly ended his six-season career at Oxford to head to Baton Rouge and take the reins at LSU.
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That left an 11-win Ole Miss team enjoying the best season in school history in the spotlight of one of college football’s most controversial stories, with NIL money, a poorly timed transfer portal window and, of course, sneaky coaches at the center of the madness.
Golding has been asked repeatedly about the chaos.
He stressed Wednesday, ahead of the sixth-seeded Rebels’ CFP Fiesta Bowl semifinal matchup against 10th-seeded Miami, that he believes every year is pretty chaotic, and that if Kiffin’s departure was going to happen, there really couldn’t have been a better time.
He challenged the narrative that is obsessed with Ole Miss’ postseason circumstances, especially when asked in his joint news conference with Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal if he had a message for Kiffin skeptics and the Rebels who didn’t believe they could compete for a national title without Kiffin.
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“Yeah, I don’t have a message for anyone else,” Golding said.
“I think our team had a message. They had a message about how they prepared and how they played and that they weren’t tired of playing.”
Golding, who had served as Ole Miss’ DC since 2023 before his promotion, said if he had one message it would be about the importance of the team above all else.
“I’m replaceable, you’re replaceable, our players are replaceable,” he said. “I think you want to build a program that’s going in the right direction and one person or one player or something like that is not going to derail that.
“There’s too much invested in it, and it’s been lined up correctly that one person is not going to impact something that drastically. If it is, it’s probably not built correctly. If a coach in any sport can determine the outcome, he probably doesn’t have a very good staff. I mean, if one player can determine the outcome, we probably don’t recruit and build adequate depth.”
An impassioned Golding continued: “It’s a team game. I mean, there’s a lot of people involved in it. So the timing of it, in my opinion, couldn’t happen at a better time for the players because everything was already in place. Everything was on track. It’s going in the right direction. We have really good players. A culture was already created. They knew the expectations. The only thing that was different is who gets them out of the tunnel. And to be honest, “I don’t think the players give a damn who gets them out of the tunnel. tunnel”.
Golding stressed that, more than anything, players care about their plan, being responsible and the people who care about them.
“I think that’s been the message our players have created,” Golding said. “I have nothing to say to anyone else.”
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Golding has seemed unfazed by his changing coaching staff, which features assistants who follow Kiffin to LSU.
Golding, 41, began his coaching career at Division II Delta State in Cleveland, Mississippi. He eventually moved up to the FCS, where he coached in southeastern Louisiana.
Long before coordinating Nick Saban’s defense at Alabama, he managed far fewer resources and a much smaller staff.
“We have six coaches in Division II,” Golding said Wednesday. “You’re the strength and conditioning coach, you’re the academic coordinator, you have to coach.
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“I walked into the offensive room this morning, and there’s nine guys that have been here all year, and there’s four more guys added. There’s 13 guys in an offensive staff room…I think we’ve got enough guys to be able to coach and know the system and do it the right way.”
Golding confirmed that two of the four assistants who coached Ole Miss in the CFP Sugar Bowl quarterfinal victory over Georgia and who are part of Kiffin’s new staff at LSU will not be with the Rebels for Thursday’s game against Miami. Tight ends coach/co-offensive coordinator Joe Cox and wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator George McDonald will not coach for Ole Miss, while offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. and running backs coach Kevin Smith are still on board.
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Golding explained that there has been “constant communication” and that he understands the competing interests of Cox and McDonald’s.
“They have another job that pays them and they have a responsibility,” Golding said. “And right now, the way the schedule is, I wasn’t going to go into this, but they’re trying: They’ve got 35 guys that are in the portal and they have to make a team (at LSU).
“So obviously, they want to be here? You’re absolutely right, they do. But again, I mean the current situation, they have a job to do and they have to build a team where they are. And where the window is right now, we’ve done it when we’re in the semifinals of the national championship.”
Golding later noted: “To answer your question, yes, we have a lot of people.”