John David Baker Not Scraping The Ole Miss Offense That Lane Kiffin Built

There is undoubtedly a lot of newness when it comes to the Ole Miss Rebels in 2026. A lot of new faces on the roster and new voices on the coaching staff. Yet, there is an undervalued amount of continuity that is easy to overlook.

Offensive coordinator John David Baker is a prime example. He’s not the returning voice of Charlie Weiss Jr. or Lane Kiffin. However, after two years at East Carolina, he returned to Oxford this offseason as the new play-caller.

Yet, he’s not looking to reinvent the offense. There’s a saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and that looks to be the approach from Baker.

John David Baker on Ole Miss Offense: "At its core, it’s the same thing"

“There have been tweaks; there’s been things that we changed when we left here two years ago,” Baker said on Monday. “But at its core, it’s the same thing. And it’s a hard thing sometimes when you’ve got guys that have been in the offense that were here last year that have so much success, and then you’re asking them to maybe change something or, ‘hey, think about this a little differently. …”

What Baker is doing isn’t common, especially for someone in his position. He enters a job that will be with a first-year head coach who isn’t looking to overhaul what made the program successful under his predecessor; rather, he’s trying to build on it.

That means hiring a new offensive coordinator who knows the system that was run under Kiffin and Weiss Jr. While that could’ve been done by promoting from within, Golding also achieved it by bringing back Baker from ECU.

“I’m talking about Trinidad [Chambliss], Kewan [Lacy], those guys that had unbelievable success a year ago that are willing to accept the little changes and understand, ‘hey, there may be a different way to do it, but I can still have the same success that I had a year ago,’“ Baker said.

Baker is essentially a new chef at a highly-rated restaurant, and instead of overhauling the menu, he’s just making small tweaks as he sees fit. Which for the Rebels will lend itself to some continuity that isn’t all that easy to find given the circumstances.

Ole Miss in 2026 has a core of returning stars, but beyond that, they will be relying on newcomers to step up and play a role. The same thing can be said about the coaching staff. For all the returners like Golding, Joe Judge, and others, they’re counting on Baker to sustain the offensive success.

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