TAMPA, Fla. - Pete Golding didn’t just answer questions about Lane Kiffin at SEC media days. He turned one of them into a full-throated defense of a college football system he says is already broken.
Golding, who is entering his first full season as Ole Miss coach after replacing Kiffin during the College Football Playoff, was asked about the tampering allegation that has followed him this offseason. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney accused Golding of tampering to land linebacker Luke Ferrelli, and the case remains under NCAA investigation.
At first, Golding brushed off the question. But when the conversation shifted to how tampering could possibly be fixed in the current environment, he launched into a nearly two-minute rant that went well beyond his own situation.
“Let’s not act like recruiting in college football for the last 100 years is the most moral thing that’s ever existed,” Golding said Wednesday. “What are we talking about here?”
He framed the issue as a system that puts everyone in a tough spot, especially when players can enter the portal with a “do not contact” designation.
“Would you quit your job before interviewing for another job or being offered another job?” Golding said.
“No, no. Nobody would, right?
But we have a portal that you can go in with a ‘do not contact’ (designation). I’m going to quit my job where I’m getting paid, and I’m going to go in saying, ‘I need a new job, but nobody can call me to interview.’
What have we created? …
“It’s their (players and their agents) responsibility to make sure they get paid really well and they also have opportunities. So by design, it’s put a lot of people in bad positions.”
Golding also drew a line to the coaching world, arguing that the back-channel conversations people call tampering when they involve players are part of how coaching changes work, too.
“Like coaches, we’re under contract,” he said. “You don’t think other ADs are calling us during the year? Same ones that are bitching about all this stuff are the same ones calling coaches to come to other schools.”
The Rebels have become one of the clearest examples of both sides of the portal-and-NIL era. Under Kiffin, Ole Miss leaned hard into the new model and found major success.
At the same time, the program has drawn scrutiny from the NCAA and the College Sports Commission. Both opened separate investigations in January, according to documents previously obtained by The Athletic.
The NCAA inquiry sought phone records from Golding and others in December and January during transfer season, while the CSC examined NIL and revenue-sharing deals tied to a transfer.
Ole Miss is also considering suing to recover buyout money from two former players who transferred to LSU.
Golding did not let the tampering talk spill over into his view of Kiffin, though. He said the two are fine, even after Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU before the first round of the Playoff.
Golding said he didn’t know Kiffin well before arriving in Oxford, but their relationship grew over his three seasons as defensive coordinator. He said he appreciated the way Kiffin treated him and the head coaching chance that came when Kiffin departed, and that the two still stay in touch.
“I have no ill will toward Coach Kiffin,” Golding said. “He texts me on a regular basis. There’s certain things that we’ll talk about, and there’s certain things that we don’t talk about.”
Golding also acknowledged that not everybody around Oxford, Miss., sees things the same way. He said fans have let him hear it during speaking stops around Mississippi, but he pushed back with a simple question: would those same fans have accepted an 11-1 season and a CFP run in 2025 if it meant losing their coach?
“Hell, yeah, you would,” Golding said. “Everybody won from it. It’s OK.”
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