Pete Golding’s first six games at Ole Miss have already put him in the record book.
The new Rebels head coach has opened his tenure with a mix of recruiting momentum and real on-field results, and the latest win only adds to the fast start. Ole Miss is 3-0 in the 2026 season after knocking off Louisville and LSU, a run that has the Rebels sitting at No. 4 in the nation and giving Golding’s first full-time head coaching stretch a jolt right out of the gate.
Saturday’s victory carried historical weight, too. Golding became the first coach to beat four ranked teams in his first six games as a head coach.
Those wins have come in a stretch that looks like this: a 41-10 win over No. 17 Tulane in the 2025 CFP First Round, a 39-34 win over No.
2 Georgia in the CFP Quarterfinal, a 41-38 win over No. 24 Louisville in the 2026 opener, and a 32-24 win over No.
7 LSU in Game 3 of 2026.
What makes the start even more striking is the way Golding picked up where the program left off. He stepped in after a Lane Kiffin midseason departure, won two playoff games, and then kept the momentum rolling into the regular season with two more ranked wins.
His early résumé is already stacked with marquee names, too. Golding has beaten Jeff Brohm, John Sumrall, Lane Kiffin, and Kirby Smart, all of them elite coaches in their own right.
The road ahead does not ease up for Ole Miss. The Rebels still have Oklahoma and Brent Venables, Texas and Steve Sarkisian, Florida and John Sumrall, and Georgia and Kirby Smart on the schedule, with those games expected to be ranked matchups.
Golding is trying to push Ole Miss back into the College Football Playoff, where he already found success in 2025 by beating Sumrall and Smart. Both coaches will get a shot at revenge in 2026.
On offense, Trinidad Chambliss has been the engine. The Ole Miss quarterback has emerged as the Heisman favorite and has been one of the best players in college football, while the Chambliss-Lacy pairing has given defenses plenty to deal with.
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LSU Just Saw One QB Change The Draft Debate Around Arch Manning
Through three weeks of the 2026 season, Trinidad Chambliss has turned himself into one of the sports earliest Heisman favorites, and it has happened the way NFL evaluators love to see it happen: against quality opponents. The Ole Miss quarterback has been stacking strong performances while giving the Rebels a legitimate centerpiece at the exact moment the national conversation is starting to sharpen around the draft and the postseason awards race.
Arch Manning, meanwhile, entered the year with the kind of expectations that usually make every throw feel magnified, but his early statistical output has not matched the hype. That gap has already raised fresh questions about how steady his production will be over the course of the season and whether he can hold onto first-round buzz, especially with both quarterbacks headed into upcoming games against ranked opponents that could swing the discussion again. [Read more 🡒]