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Pete Golding and Lane Kiffin used to work together at Ole Miss, but there's some obvious tension now.
Kiffin left the Rebels last November ahead of a College Football Playoff run to join their former SEC West Division rival, LSU, and Golding was promoted from defensive coordinator to replace him. The two would later clash over poaching players in the transfer portal, but Golding insisted at SEC Media Days on Wednesday that there's no bad blood between them.
"Lane and I are good," he said, per On3's Brett McMurphy. "I didn't know him before taking the job (at Ole Miss). I have no ill will toward Coach Kiffin. He texts me on a regular basis, and there's certain things we'll talk about, certain things we don't talk about."
Still, just because the relationship seems patched up doesn't mean there hasn't been some tension, particularly over LSU's efforts to poach Ole Miss stars like Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacey. Golding said he had to do some negative recruiting against the Tigers, pointing out that the two players would be viewed by the Ole Miss fanbase the same way that Kiffin was after his departure.
"I said Google Lane Kiffin. The dude that they would have built a statue of here three days ago," Golding said. "Google his name right now. They wouldn’t piss on him if he’s on fire. And so they’re gonna do the same thing to y’all two if you do that."
Golding, who led the Rebels to the CFP semifinal after replacing Kiffin last fall, is now set for his first full season at the helm, and he managed to hold on to some major retentions. The score will be settled once and for all when the two teams square off in Oxford to kick off the SEC schedule in Week 3.
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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: Pete Golding explains complicated relationship with Lane Kiffin
