Pete Golding calls facing Ole Miss' offense a 'beautiful thing'

First-year defensive coordinator Pete Golding realizes the unique opportunity to learn from facing the Ole Miss offense every day in practice. The Rebels boast one of the fastest offenses in the country, averaging 77.0 plays per game in 2022.

Keeping up with that pace has been a challenge for both Golding and the players, but it’s also helped them develop. The coach knows his defense will be more prepared to face teams with an up-tempo style because of it.

“It’s a beautiful thing, to be honest with you,” Golding said. “You don’t love doing it Day 1, especially when you’ve got a bunch of new guys. But the benefit of it is we don’t have to simulate it. It’s very hard when you start playing up-tempo teams, in practice, to be able to get a scout team to actually simulate the speed of that and still be able to execute.

“So it’s been awesome going against coach (Lane) Kiffin and coach (Charlie) Weis (Jr.) every day. Not only how multiple they are formationally, but the tempo they play at. It really allows your guys to have to focus, beat ’em to the ball, get their cleats in the turf and execute.”

Ole Miss’ fast pace helped it to rank 29th nationally and fifth in the SEC with 33.5 points per game. The Rebels were one of the nation’s top teams at running the ball, ranking third in the country behind only the run-happy offenses of Army and Air Force.

They should once again have one of the best ground attacks in college football thanks to the return of Quinshon Judkins (1,567 yards and 16 TDs in 2022). Ole Miss also should be strong at quarterback with Jaxson Dart battling it out with transfers Spencer Sanders and Walker Howard for the starting job.

Defensively, the Rebels ranked ninth in the SEC in points allowed per game (25.5) and eighth in yards allowed per game (387.8) in 2022. They particularly fell apart in the final six games of the year, giving up 35.2 points per game and going 1-5.

Golding arrives in Oxford after spending the past five seasons as the defensive coordinator at Alabama. As he aims to get the defense up to par to compete in the SEC West, he can already see the improvements that have been made as a direct result of the competition with the offense.

“It also makes you be a little more simple on defense, which I think can help our guys to get their cleats in the turf, see their key and play fast,” Golding continued. “It’s been really good. It’s kind of a backward approach to how old school ball would say, ‘here’s two-back, here’s one-back’ and the progression of teaching a defense. But that’s not football anymore. Now it’s very multiple. It happens fast, a lot of alternative formations.

“The good thing about this is we see it every day. Nobody’s gonna do it faster and nobody’s gonna do it better.”