Pete Golding: Georgia game felt 'too big' for Ole Miss, was catalyst for portal approach

ATLANTA — Often there is a singular moment throughout a team’s season that can be pinpointed as where the wheels came off or the mission got off track. For Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding it was November 11 in Athens, Georgia.

The Rebels, ranked No. 9 in the College Football Playoff rankings at the time, took on No. 2 Georgia in a highly anticipated matchup. The moment was a short-lived one as the Bulldogs went on to win 52-17 and officially ending the bid for the CFP for Ole Miss.

In the final two weeks of the regular season Ole Miss went on to win and secured its second 10-win regular season in the last three years, but there was still a lingering bitter taste.

Golding noticed right away the night was going to go to the Rebels way and also served as the catalyst for what was to come in December.

“To be honest with you, that was the first time this season where on the sideline, I felt like, when you looked in a player’s eyes, like he wasn’t there,” Golding said on Wednesday. “It was the first time I felt like the moment was too big.

“That was the first game where we really didn’t have it, and that was from snap one to the last snap. Part of it was the buildup to the game. A lot of these kids from a lot of different places, A, it’s Georgia, No. 1 team in the country, the whole playoff talk that they’re hearing the outside noise if you win the game. I think part of that is not having played in a lot of big games. I’m not saying Ole Miss, but
the team that we have.”

The game served as a wake up call for Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin acknowledged a change in recruiting had to happen.

What did happen was Golding and Kiffin getting together to secure the best defensive line players in the transfer portal in top-rated Walter Nolen from Texas A&M, Florida EDGE Princely Umanmielen plus Tennessee’s Tyler Baron.

A need for a defensive front seven that can handle the best of the Southeastern Conference’s offenses was priority number one for Golding. Luckily for Kiffin he has a defensive coordinator who’s contact list rolls deep with SEC players.

Something Ole Miss was unable to take advantage of last offseason when Golding was hired.

“The unique thing is, when I took the job January 16th to 20th, the SEC portal was already closed. This is the first opportunity we’ve actually got to recruit the SEC since I’ve been here, and that’s where most of my connections were,” Golding said. “I recruited them at some point, whether we wanted them at Alabama or we didn’t, we recruited them at some point. So there was an initial relationship there. I think that was part of it. No different — if I’d have got there in December of last year, it still would have been an SEC focus because that’s where most of the best players tend to go to.”

Along with the previously mentioned SEC trio, Golding added four other SEC players on defense from the portal.

Ole Miss is taking an all-in approach when it comes to 2024 and making the CFP 12-team format a year from now. Kiffin was also full-go when it came to wanting experienced players from the SEC.

“A lot of that was signing players that are already significant players in the SEC. That we’ve seen play against these team,” Kiffin said. “I kind of joke with you guys sometimes (saying), ‘Warm ups don’t look very good that night.’ That’s nothing against our players and how hard they play. A lot of that is just size and that’s not a secret. We have not been a very big team, especially defensively.”