Everyone Is Sleeping on Ole Miss Again, and That's Dangerous

The Ole Miss Rebels have a new head coach in 2026, but they return a lot of talent from a team that made it to the College Football Playoff Semifinals a year ago. That should count for something.

Pete Golding may be new for the Rebels on the sidelines this season, but he is the man who piloted Ole Miss to a 2-1 playoff record last year in the team's first playoff appearance in school history. The Rebels blew out Tulane 41-10 in the opening round before taking down Georgia in a 39-34 nailbiter in the Sugar Bowl. Ole Miss would go on to lose a heartbreaker to Miami in the Fiesta Bowl that ended its season, but the Rebels were one of the last four teams standing in college football.

Why is Ole Miss not receiving as much hype as one might expect entering this campaign? There's one big reason why.

Pete Golding is an Unproven Commodity at Head Coach

What Pete Golding accomplished as Ole Miss' head coach (advancing to the Final Four and winning two playoff games) cannot be understated. That is a noteworthy accomplishment with a team that was reeling with drama following the departure of former head coach Lane Kiffin for the job at LSU. Still, Golding is relatively unproven as the CEO of a program, playoff wins aside.

The critics will point out that Golding accomplished Ole Miss' playoff run with Kiffin's team (although Golding had a strong hand in constructing that roster). Kiffin and Charlie Weis Jr. piloted the offense and helped burst former backup quarterback Trinidad Chambliss onto the scene alongside dynamic running back Kewan Lacy. Both of those coaches are now in Baton Rouge, and Ole Miss has a first-time head coach at the helm in the SEC. Not an easy task.

Still, something should be said for how Golding managed to navigate the Kiffin drama last winter and lead Ole Miss through the playoff. It's evident that Golding is not only a strong defensive coordinator, but he also has the ability to lead a team through adversity at the most crucial juncture of the season, all while putting an emphasis on player retention and roster construction for 2026.

The Rebels return a lot of talent (Chambliss, Lacy, Suntarine Perkins, William Echoles, etc.), and they have a new offensive coordinator who has limited SEC experience before taking the OC job at East Carolina (John David Baker). Even so, we have yet to see how Golding and his new staff will handle an entire season and the grind of an SEC schedule. So, the potential hype train is slowed.

It's slowed so much that Vegas set the Rebels' O/U win total at 7.5 for the upcoming year (the over is favored, by the way), according to FanDuel Sportsbook. That's a far cry from the 13-2 finish that Ole Miss enjoyed a season ago.

So, why is it dangerous to discredit Ole Miss in the preseason talks? New head coach or not, the Rebels return one of the most dynamic backfields in college football in the tandem of Chambliss and Lacy, and the defense's front seven should be stacked once again to wreak havoc on opposing quarterbacks. If the transition is even remotely smooth from the Kiffin to Golding era, Ole Miss should be a difficult opponent to face in 2026, even with a tough conference schedule.

Think back to last season. The Rebels were replacing a proven signal-caller in Jaxson Dart with, presumably, Austin Simmons, and most pundits weren't very high on Ole Miss' ability to reach the CFP. Of course, Simmons ended up not being the guy after Week 2, and in stepped Trinidad Chambliss, but that was just the spark that Ole Miss needed to have just one regular season loss and cruise into the playoff.

Now, the criticism comes from having a new head coach, but much of the key talent is the same. If the schemes can get these players into the best situation to win, then Ole Miss should do plenty of winning this fall, preseason criticism aside.

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