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The Lane Kiffin-Ole Miss soap opera that dominated the college football news cycle last fall ended with Kiffin going to LSU and defensive coordinator Pete Golding being named head coach.
Golding proceeded to build on Kiffin's tenure and capped the best season in Ole Miss history by winning two College Football Playoff games and taking the Rebels to the semifinals of the CFP in the Fiesta Bowl.
The drama that followed Kiffin around Oxford all last season was likely a distraction for Ole Miss, even if Golding's superb coaching in the CFP negated its impact.
Going into his first full season as the head coach at Ole Miss, Golding harbors no hard feelings for Kiffin, who he and the Rebels will face on Sept. 19 in Oxford in what is arguably the most hyped-up college football game of the 2026 regular season.
Pete Golding, Lane Kiffin are all good
"Lane and I are good," Golding said Wednesday at SEC Media Days in Tampa, Florida. "I did not know Coach Kiffin prior to taking the Ole Miss job. I wasn't at Alabama when Coach Kiffin was. I didn't come to Ole Miss to be with Coach Kiffin; I came to Ole Miss to raise three kids.
"Our relationship really grew in those three-and-a-half years, and he did a lot for me. I was very, very appreciative of how he treated me and my family and learned a lot from him. I have no ill will towards Coach Kiffin."
Golding said that despite the two now coaching two SEC rivals, he and Kiffin still text each other, though there are "certain things" they don't talk about.
"I can separate the two," Golding said. "I know some people can't. I tell a lot of these people — and I probably shouldn't say this, but I don't care — I told an Ole Miss group the other day, in 2021, if you said you could look in 2025 and you're about to be 11-1 and go to the playoff, would you take it if your coach was leaving? They're like, 'Hell, yeah!' You would.
"Everybody won from it, it's okay. [Athletic director Keith Carter] made a great hire, he did a great job. Throughout the process, I'll be the first one to tell you, I told him I [thought] he was dumb if he was to leave. I wanted him to stay. He decided what was better for him and his family, and that's for him to decide. I have no ill will towards him at all."
Kiffin, who takes the stage in Tampa on Thursday, will likely be asked the same question about his relationship with Golding. It will be incredibly intriguing to hear his side of the story.
Regardless of what he says about Golding and the University of Mississippi, it won't lessen the level of animosity Kiffin and LSU face when they walk into Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in September, nor did Golding's praise of Kiffin do anything to soften the disdain Tiger fans have for Ole Miss.
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