Pete Golding Will Continue to Rotate Secondary, Reveals Sharif Denson's Status vs LSU

For Ole Miss, LSU and its secondary comes into clear focus ahead of Week 3.

Sep 12, 2026; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi Rebels Head Coach Pete Golding reacts during warm ups prior to the game against the Charlotte 49ers at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Through two weeks of the season Ole Miss knows its clearest deficiency. 

Despite a 2-0 start to the year, which includes a ranked win at a neutral site, the Rebels’ secondary has dampened the overall feeling inside the Manning Center.

Like Week 1 against Louisville, Ole Miss gave up multiple explosive plays to Charlotte on blown coverages or missed assignments throughout its dominant Week 2 win. Players in the secondary even had playsheet wristbands to help with the mental aspect. 

In Saturday’s win in Oxford, Ole Miss rotated through nine defensive backs while starters remained on the field. The Rebels will continue to do so until Pete Golding finds the right ‘five’ in his defensive backfield, particularly at safety.  

“I think at times. Holding people scoreless in the first half is tough versus anybody. Eliminating the explosive plays — we had (surrendered) 12 explosive plays last week for 340 yards. I mean it’s hard to beat anybody that way and to beat a top-25 team, like that’s tough, you’re flirting with things (losses),” Golding said Saturday night. “I thought we minimized them a little bit. I was super disappointed on the same play recurring and you feel like you get on the sideline and you emphasize it, something emphasized all week. 

The attention to detail and the eye control and it being multiple people is the problem, so we’ve gotta learn from other guys’ mistakes. Mentioned this several times — everybody doesn’t get a ‘my bad’. When we see it on tape and we correct it, we gotta be able to fix it. We’re going to continue to rotate guys and continue to find five in the backend that do shit right, because right now we don’t have five.” 

Ole Miss has been without planned starters in transfer safety Sharif Denson and returning cornerback Antonio Kite for much of the last two weeks. Kite played sparingly in Week 1 after enduring an injury, while Denson has yet to play a snap for the Rebels also because of an injury. 

No Excuse

Sep 12, 2026; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; Charlotte 49ers quarterback Cole Gonzales (9) passes the ball over Mississippi Rebels safety Edwin Joseph (14) during the second quarter at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Though Ole Miss has largely been without two key components in its secondary, Golding doesn’t see their on-field absence as an excuse to the underwhelming outings in coverage. 

“Obviously we came into it — they were two starters all of fall camp, but I’m not going to sit here and give them an excuse because it can’t be,” Golding explained. “That’s the one thing that we went out and got a lot of DBs to create depth and need rotational pieces, so it’s not an excuse whether you run out there first or second. You got to know where to line up and know who to look at. What’s your primary key and secondary key? You got to your job and you got to do it consistently. 

It’s definitely not a scapegoat obviously. Does it make a difference? Yeah. Some guys are moving at different spots and we can’t put these two beside each other — do we gotta put somebody else between them? There’s a lot going on with it, but I felt like with this game plan being very simple, I was hoping to see a bigger improvement. That’s something we’re going to have to go to work on.”

Denson’s undisclosed injury occurred in the days leading up to Ole Miss’ season opener. However, while Ole Miss awaits to learn more about Kite’s status for the highly anticipated Week 3 matchup, Golding did reveal that the Rebels ‘will’ get at least one boost next weekend.   

“I think Sharif for sure will play this week,” Golding said. “It was one we were hopeful for this game, at least some. There was a decision made on Wednesday, let’s make sure we can have him for next Tuesday. We went ahead and had an injection on Wednesday to make sure that he would be ready to go for next week. Kite’s situation is hopeful for this week. I think we probably won’t know until towards the end of the week.”   

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