When Pete Golding took over at Ole Miss after the Lane Kiffin era ended in 2025, there was plenty of reason to wonder whether the Rebels could keep rolling. Instead, the No. 7 team in the country has looked even sharper.
That’s the surprising twist in Oxford: Kiffin changed the program, but his best Ole Miss teams never quite turned all that talent into the biggest wins. The record was solid enough - 5-5 in 2020, 10-3 in 2021 with a loss in the Sugar Bowl, 8-5 in 2022 with a loss in the Texas Bowl, 11-2 in 2023 with a Peach Bowl win, 10-3 in 2024 with a Gator Bowl win, and 11-1 in 2025 before he left for the LSU Tigers - but the Rebels often came up short when the spotlight got brightest.
That showed up in 2023, when Ole Miss fell 24-10 to the No. 13 Alabama Crimson Tide and 52-17 to the No.
2 Georgia Bulldogs, then still missed the College Football Playoff despite big seasons from quarterback Jaxson Dart and running back Quinshon Judkins. It popped again in 2024, when the Rebels had what looked like a friendlier path but still dropped two games to unranked opponents and lost to the No.
13 LSU Tigers in overtime. The one year Kiffin did knock off No.
3 Georgia in Oxford, 28-10, Ole Miss still finished 10-3.
The 2025 season finally looked like the breakthrough, with the Rebels’ only regular-season loss coming in a 43-35 defeat to No. 9 Georgia. Then the LSU rumors surfaced, and they turned out to be true.
From there, Golding inherited a contender and has pushed it further. Ole Miss, with quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy, earned its first-ever CFP victory by beating the No.
11 Tulane Green Wave 41-10. The Rebels kept going from there and stunned Georgia 39-34 in a game Ole Miss fans will remember for a long time.
The run ended one step short of the national title game, with the Rebels losing 31-27 to the No. 10 Miami Hurricanes. Still, Golding walked away with two CFP wins, and Ole Miss started to look like a team with a clear personality - something the article argues Kiffin never fully established in Oxford.
This season, the Rebels are 5-1, and the road loss at No. 21 Florida, 52-28, was rough. Ole Miss also played without Lacy in that game and struggled defensively, but that one performance hasn’t wiped out everything else the Rebels have done.
They beat the Kiffin-led No. 7 LSU team 32-24 in Week 3, then answered the Florida loss with a 52-17 rout of Vanderbilt and a 31-3 demolition of No.
13 Missouri. That Missouri win carried extra weight after the Tigers had recently beaten Florida 45-17 and Texas A&M 27-6, but Ole Miss handled them anyway.
What stands out now is how complete the Rebels look under Golding. They can control the line of scrimmage, throw the ball effectively, and make life miserable on defense. If they can get past a desperate Texas Longhorns team, the path ahead doesn’t look especially brutal.
There’s still a Nov. 7 home date with Georgia on the schedule, but Ole Miss has already shown it can beat Kirby Smart’s team. After six weeks, the Rebels are still in the mix for the SEC and still look like a national title contender.
And that’s the bigger story here: Golding has answered every doubt about whether Ole Miss could survive without Kiffin. So far, he has matched him and maybe even passed him. Golding is 2-1 against Top 10 teams, and the Rebels under him look like a group that believes it can win the game that matters most.
In Other News...
Ole Miss Just Got A National Vote Of Confidence Before Texas
Ole Miss is heading into the stretch run with plenty of momentum, and it just picked up a notable endorsement from one of the sports most recognizable voices. On the Pat McAfee show, ESPN analyst Rece Davis said he views the Rebels as a legitimate contender in the 2026 college football season, even putting them in the conversation as the SECs second-best team behind Georgia.
That kind of national confidence matters because the schedule only gets more revealing from here, starting with Texas on deck. Ole Miss already has notable wins over LSU, Missouri and Louisville, and the next few weeks will show whether the Rebels can keep stacking those kinds of results as the second half of the season tightens the margin for error. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Has A Real Opening Against Texas If One Unit Holds Up
Ole Miss comes into this week riding the lift of a strong win and looking at a Texas team that suddenly has real urgency attached to it. The Longhorns have dropped two straight, and the Rebels know they are getting a defense that still carries a strong reputation overall, even if the matchup has changed a bit with a key piece now unavailable on the edge.
Colin Simmons being out with a high ankle sprain matters because it can alter how much pressure Texas gets on Trinidad Chambliss, and that is where this game could tilt if Ole Miss protects well enough. Kewan Lacy has battled injuries but remains an important part of the Rebels' offense, and if he gives them a steady presence, Ole Miss has a path to make this more uncomfortable for Texas than the rankings would suggest. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Gets Rare Vote Of Confidence In Massive Texas Test
Ole Miss is heading into one of its biggest measuring-stick games of the season with an unusual bit of outside optimism attached. ESPN analyst Greg McElroy picked the Rebels to beat Texas, pointing to a Longhorns offensive line that has struggled and the possibility that edge rusher Colin Simmons could be limited by injury, while also noting Ole Miss has the kind of offensive line play that can help it handle a physical road test.
The quarterback situation adds another layer to a matchup already thick with stakes. Steve Sarkisian has hinted at a possible change behind center but still expects Arch Manning to start, and McElroy also pointed out that Texas still brings real defensive strength to the table. For Ole Miss, the challenge is clear: take advantage of the openings that have shown up for Texas while surviving the stretches where the Longhorns can still make life difficult. [Read more 🡒]