Skip to main content
Ole Miss

'I don't think we're going to fall down': Pete Golding is high on the Ole Miss defense in 2025

11by:Jake Thompson•06/29/25•

JakeThompsonOn3

NCAA Football: Furman at Mississippi
Aug 31, 2024; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi Rebels defensive coordinator Pete Golding watches during warm ups prior to the game against the Furman Paladins at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports

Pete Golding is entering his third season as the defensive coordinator for the Ole Miss football program. Year two might be one of the best of his career.

The Rebels boasted NFL talent across all 11 spots and were one of the best defenses in the country in 2024. But now the question is what will this unit be in 2025?

Losing four starters along the defensive line to the NFL plus starting linebacker Chris “Pooh” Paul, Jr. and others there has not been as much chatter outside the Manning Center of how good that side of the ball will be.

Jared Ivey, Walter Nolen, Princely Umanmielen and JJ Pegues are not walking back through the locker room doors, but that is not a concern to Golding. In fact he might be just as confidence in his group now as he was this time last year.

“A lot of that was from the front six and the (tackles for loss) they created on base downs to get guys like Ivey in obvious passing downs. What I’m most excited about is I don’t think we’re going to fall down from where we were from a front-six standpoint,” Golding said during his ‘Fireside Chat’ appearance with Ole Miss men’s basketball head coach Chris Beard.

“We got a really talented group. Most of that group, ninety percent of that group was already in the room so they know the expectations. They have a really good foundation of what we’re going to ask them to do and why we’re going to ask them to do it.”

Golding returns Zxavian Harris, William Echoles, Kam Franklin, Jamarious Brown and Jeffery Rush as notable players on the Ole Miss defensive front. Can even add junior hybrid linebacker and defensive end Suntarine Perkins to the list.

Newcomers include freshmen Andrew Maddox from Oak Grove plus Corey Adams and Corey Amos out of Louisiana. Transfer additions are Da’Shawn Womack from LSU and Princewill Umanmielen from Nebraska that Golding is very high on a month away from Fall camp beginning.

“I think we’ve added two elite edge players to it that will help, obviously, to make negative plays and pressure the quarterback,” Golding continued.

“Inside, everybody says we lost three inside guys to the draft,” Golding continued. “We didn’t replace them with one portal guy. Because over the last two seasons, from a recruiting standpoint, I think we’ve hit on those guys inside. All four of them are Mississippi kids. They’ve been here. They’ve been in the system. I’m really excited about the front six.”

The Ole Miss secondary is one area that is still the question mark and unproven entity for Golding entering the season.

Spring was not the best chance for development with several guys dealing with injuries, including Arkansas transfer corner back Jaylon Braxton. He did not participate in any drills during March and April.

If there is one weakness in Golding’s defense it would currently have to be the back end, which is where a couple games were lost in Southeastern Conference play a season ago.

“In the back end, we have nine guys in the back end that didn’t go through Spring ball,” Golding said. “We’re with them this Summer, obviously, now that the rules have changed. I think a big piece of the success will be this Summer. Getting the continuity together, making sure those guys understand what we’re going to ask them to do. From a coaching aspect we got to do a good job of understanding what they can do and build a package around that instead of just trying to plug them into something that we did last year with different people.”

You may also like