Pete Golding is about to step into one of the biggest games of his coaching career, but on Friday afternoon he spent part of his time looking back instead of forward.
The Ole Miss head coach joined The Pat McAfee Show from Oxford with Saturday night’s No. 8 Rebels vs.
No. 7 LSU matchup looming, a game set for a 7:30 p.m.
ET kickoff on ABC. The spotlight is heavy enough already, and Lane Kiffin’s return to Oxford only adds to the noise around the matchup.
Still, Golding made room for a different topic: what he learned under Nick Saban.
Golding coached under Saban at Alabama from 2018-22 as the Crimson Tide’s defensive coordinator before taking the same job at Ole Miss. He ran the Rebels’ defense from 2023 to late last season, then moved into the head coaching role in Oxford after Kiffin left for LSU.
On McAfee’s show, Golding explained that Saban changed the way he thought about discipline.
“For me, for the longest time coaching, I felt like discipline was like, when I signaled a defense in, did the 11 guys line up where they were supposed to? Did they do their jobs the way I was telling them to do it?
That’s what I thought about discipline. … Coach (Saban) was the first one to make me (realize), no, no, here’s something I know I’m supposed to do, but I don’t want to do it, can I make myself do it?”
Pete Golding told McAfee, who was hosting the show from Oxford on Friday in the leadup to Saturday night’s game.
He said Saban’s lesson went beyond players and into the entire building.
“The self-discipline piece to me, I learned so much from Coach Saban, and it’s not just for the players, it’s for everybody in the building,” Golding added. “The ability to hold people accountable the way he did on a consistent basis and not get tired of it, at the age he was at.
He’s a machine, man. I learned so much from him and really appreciated my time, obviously, that I was at Alabama with him.”
In Other News...
LSUs Backup QB Is Giving Tigers Fans A Reason To Pay Attention
LSU went into the offseason knowing quarterback depth would be a talking point, and the Tigers answered by adding three transfer portal passers, including Landen Clark from Elon. The 2025 Colonial Athletic Association Co-Offensive Rookie of the Year has already found his way onto the field in the first two games of the 2026 season, and his early work has given LSU something useful behind the starter: a backup who can operate the offense and threaten defenses with his legs.
Clark was the first quarterback to commit to LSU under coach Lane Kiffin, and he has quickly settled into the primary reserve role. Through two appearances, he has completed 7 of 10 passes for 109 yards and a touchdown while adding 42 rushing yards and another score, a small sample that still matters for a team that wants reliability if it ever has to turn to its No. 2 option. [Read more 🡒]
Why LSU Fans Still Treat Ole Miss Like A Different Night
Longtime LSU football pressbox announcer James Manasseh has spent enough Saturdays around Tiger Stadium to know which games carry their own kind of weight. In a recent look back at LSUs history in nationally televised night games, the 19th District Court Judge traced how those matchups helped define the programs home-field mystique, with the Ole Miss rivalry standing out as one of the fixtures that has always felt a little different under the lights.
Manasseh pointed to the rivalrys place in LSU history as something distinct from even the better-known Alabama series, a reminder that not every big game means the same thing in Baton Rouge. He also sounded confident about the next chapter, expressing belief that LSU will handle Ole Miss, which only adds to the anticipation for a matchup Tiger fans still treat like it belongs on its own night. [Read more 🡒]
LSU And Ole Miss Just Turned This Showdown Into A Scouting War
The rivalry angle between LSU and Ole Miss has taken on a different edge since the end of the 2025 season, with at least 33 coaches, players, front office members and support staff moving between the two football programs. Lane Kiffins jump from Ole Miss to LSU brought several assistants, players and staff with him, while other former LSU players and coaches headed the other way, turning a familiar SEC matchup into something closer to a shared personnel file.
For both programs, the result is an unusual level of inside knowledge on each sides tendencies, habits and roster makeup. What once looked like a standard showdown now has the feel of a scouting war, with each staff carrying a deep understanding of the others structure and strategy. In a game like this, the edge may come less from surprise and more from who can adapt quickest to a setting where almost nothing is truly unfamiliar. [Read more 🡒]