Pete Golding’s first SEC Media Days as Ole Miss’ head coach comes with no shortage of talking points.
The Rebels are coming off a 2025 season that pushed expectations even higher, and the 2026 version of this team is already drawing plenty of attention. Ole Miss is expected to open the year ranked inside the top 15, and the schedule starts with a serious test against Louisville in Nashville - the kind of opener that demands focus from the jump.
Golding will be in Tampa, Florida, from July 20-23 for the annual event, and the questions will come fast. The biggest one is how Ole Miss plans to carry over the momentum from a season in which it won two College Football Playoff games with Golding serving as head coach.
A lot of the spotlight will land on the offense, where the Rebels return two Heisman Trophy candidates in quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy. That duo gives Ole Miss one of the most dangerous offensive pairings in the country, and the challenge now is making sure the production stays at that level.
There’s also a new face running the offense. With Charlie Weis Jr. now at LSU, John David Baker steps into a major role after Ole Miss spent years building one of the nation’s top scoring attacks under Weis. Baker inherits a loaded group, and the Rebels added several impact players through the transfer portal to give him more options.
The defense has its own set of questions. A number of the losses from 2025 traced back to shaky defensive play, so Ole Miss attacked the portal with that in mind. The secondary, in particular, looks much stronger than it did a year ago, and the Rebels also want real improvement against the run after finishing among the SEC’s worst teams in rushing defense last season.
Another storyline Golding will almost certainly have to address is Lane Kiffin’s dramatic exit to LSU. Kiffin left just before the Rebels’ College Football Playoff run, and the two programs are set to meet in Oxford on September 19th. With all the attention that will surround Kiffin’s return, Ole Miss will need to keep its footing and avoid getting pulled into the noise.
Up front, the Rebels should feel good about the offensive line. It was one of the team’s strengths in 2025, with nearly every starter back and LSU transfer Carius Curne added to reinforce the unit.
In the end, the clearest message for Ole Miss is simple: keep Chambliss and Lacy healthy, because they are expected to be the engine of the offense in 2026. Golding’s answers in Tampa should go a long way toward showing how the Rebels plan to handle the pressure that comes with being one of the teams to watch.
In Other News...
Why Ole Miss Fans Are Suddenly Watching This Transfer Closely
Johntay Cook II arrives in Oxford with the kind of rsum that makes him easy to notice and hard to ignore. After stops at Texas, Washington and Syracuse, the wide receiver is expected to matter in Ole Miss 2026 plans, and his most recent season showed why the Rebels are giving him a real look. He caught 45 passes for 549 yards and 2 touchdowns at Syracuse, production that gives Ole Miss a proven option as it reshapes its offense under coach John David Baker.
For Cook, the next step is less about reliving the transfer trail and more about finding a fit quickly with Trinidad Chambliss. Ole Miss has plenty of room for a receiver to carve out a larger role, and Cooks path to that opportunity will depend on how well he meshes with the quarterback and how consistently he can bring the kind of playmaking that has followed him from school to school. The connection is still being built, but it has the feel of one that could matter a lot to this offense. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss May Have One Edge That Could Save This Season
Pete Goldings first months in charge at Ole Miss have been defined less by a sweeping reset than by a careful attempt to preserve what already made sense. After Lane Kiffins departure, Golding brought in 10 new staff members, but he also leaned hard on familiarity by promoting Bryan Brown into the defensive coordinator role and keeping some continuity on offense with John David Baker, who already knows the program from a previous stint in Oxford.
That kind of internal stability may not sound as flashy as a major splash hire, especially with the SEC schedule looming, but it could end up mattering more than the Rebels first realized. Golding inherits a team that has to adjust to a new head coach while still trying to avoid the kind of drift that can follow a sudden change, and the quiet advantage here is that several key voices already understand the players, the expectations and what has and has not worked in this system. [Read more 🡒]