Profiling Key Ole Miss Assistant Joe Judge Ahead of 2026 Season

Joe Judge is right where he wants to be.

The 44-year-old former NFL head coach is entering his third season with Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi this fall.

“I love it here, love being in Mississippi,” Judge said in December ahead of the Rebels’ debut in the College Football Playoffs. “I love being in Oxford, love these players. This university has been tremendous. The fans have been great. The meeting with my family…Why would I want to leave here? This is awesome, right? We’re playing playoff football right now. We get to go out there Saturday and play Tulane in the playoffs. Where else would you rather be?”

Last fall was a banner year for Judge and Ole Miss, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.

The Rebels completed their first 13-win season in 2025, reaching new heights as Ole Miss came up just a handful of plays short of appearing in the National Championship Game. Offensively, Judge has helped direct a scheme that has averaged 4,630 passing yards and 2,465 rushing yards per season, respectively, while scoring an average of 38.7 points per game with 23 wins since 2024.

On the day of Lane Kiffin’s chaotic departure from the Manning Center, Judge received consideration to lead the Rebels to the finish line as the interim head coach by Ole Miss leadership. Ole Miss ultimately felt comfortable promoting defensive coordinator Pete Golding to fill the full-time void, prioritizing retention among the roster and coaching staff.

Judge was among the few offensive coaches to remain with the Rebels following Kiffin’s move to Baton Rouge.

After not getting the permanent job, it could’ve been relatively easy for Judge to find his next opportunity. Opportunities came knocking, but Golding was able to keep Judge around, elevating him as the head coach of the offense while remaining the quarterbacks coach.

Judge, of course, has head coaching experience and was last in that role roughly five seasons ago, when he was hired to lead the New York Giants ahead of the 2020 season. Judge’s run in East Rutherford, New Jersey lasted just two seasons after posting a 10-23 record.

“(Judge) was hired to be a CEO type (coach with the Giants) and I think part of that came from his experience as the special teams coordinator in New England, where you’re in front of the entire team more than an offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator,” NorthJersey.com’s New York Giants beat reporter Art Stapleton shared. “I don’t think that element of coaches is really ever talked about until it’s almost too late…For Joe Judge, he at least had the experience of what it was like to have offensive and defensive players all in the same room.”

Judge’s Background

Joe Judge meeting with head coach Bill Belichick ahead of Super Bowl LII (2018). — Joe Judge meets with head coach Bill Belichick ahead of Super Bowl LII (2018). | USA Today

After graduating from Lansdale Catholic High School in Pennsylvania, Judge served primarily as a backup quarterback for the Bulldogs in Starkville, Mississippi (2000-2004).

Judge then quickly transitioned to a coaching career where spent his first four seasons (2005-2008) between Mississippi State and Birmingham Southern (linebackers/special teams coordinator), before landing at Alabama for three seasons, which catapulted him into a 12-year NFL career. Judge began with the New England Patriots in 2012, working his way up from special teams assistant to special teams coordinator, as well as handling duties as the wide receivers coach to end his first stint in Foxboro (2019). Judge would return to the Patriots following his tenure with the Giants, returning as an offensive assistant/quarterbacks coach (2022) and assistant head coach (2023).

Judge has been with the Rebels since the 2024 season, first serving as a senior offensive analyst and then receiving a promotion to quarterbacks coach ahead of the 2025 season. Before taking last year’s promotion, Judge interviewed for the head coaching positions at UMass and Temple that same offseason. Following the Rebels’ successful 13-2 campaign in 2025-26, Judge once again received head coaching interest from lower level schools such as South Florida, UConn, Colorado State and Coastal Carolina.

What Went Wrong?

Former New York Giants head coach Joe Judge in the first half at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022. | USA Today

“Offensivley, you never really got a full grip of what he wanted with the New York Giants because he was saddled with Jason Garrett — who he didn’t want,” Giants Nation Show host Bobby Skinner said. “Then when he fired Jason Garrett, Daniel Jones was injured after one game and they had to get through the season with Mike Glennon and Jake Fromm. Offensively, he did have more of a role in the identity of ‘do not turn over the ball, control it and let’s march down the field in 8-10 plays’.”

“When the Giants made the hire, they’re the ones who brought up that they wanted a CEO type head coach. I think at the end of the day Judge was trying to be a CEO head coach, but he had issues with the general manager…I think Joe’s frustration at the end of his second-year really caught up to him,” Stapleton added.

The two analysts also shared similar notes in terms of how practices were run under Judge’s watch. Like from practices we’ve seen Kiffin and Golding run, Judge would have the first and second team units on opposite sides of the fields running simultaneously to get as many reps as possible. Judge would also make players run laps for making mistakes during practices, but realized it was important to relate to them as well.

“The practices Joe Judge had his first year shocked the hell out of everybody because he’s running tackling drills at the goal line with Saquon Barkley, taking a snap and getting hit by a practice squad linebacker,” Stapleton recalled. “I think Joe just felt like he needed to establish some sort of toughness that the Giants hadn’t had.”

That notable struggling tenure with the Giants hasn't followed him at collegiate level.

Quarterback Whisperer?

Ole Miss Rebels quarterbacks coach Joe Judge with Trinidad Chambliss (6) against the Miami Hurricanes during the 2026 Fiesta Bowl and semifinal game of the College Football Playoff in Glendale, Arizona (2026). | USA Today

During his first season in Oxford, Judge worked closely with eventual first round pick of the New York Giants, Jaxson Dart. In their only season together Dart enjoyed a breakout year as he set career-highs across the board with 4,279 passing yards and 32 total touchdowns (29 passing), on his way to earning First-Team All-SEC honors in 2024.

“Coach Judge is one of the most knowledgeable coaches I’ve ever been around,” Dart said of Judge during the 2025 NFL Combine. “He knows every part of the game, even special teams. This year, he was huge for me for game prep and breaking down little fundamentals.”

Going into year three at Ole Miss, Judge is now working on polishing off his latest NFL hopeful signal-caller.

Judge has been among the major factors that have helped transform former Ferris State quarterback Trinidad Chambliss into one of college football’s biggest stars under center.

Chambliss ended up setting the SEC on fire in first year at the Division I level, totaling 4,464 yards of offense (3,937 passing), 30 touchdowns (22 passing) and just three interceptions.

However, it wasn’t a sure thing Judge would get another year with his newfound star.

In February, during Chambliss’ successful eligibility court hearing in Pittsboro, Mississippi, Judge was a key component on the stand as he testified about how sleep can impact a high level athlete’s performance — something Chambliss battled medically with from 2022-2023.

Their relationship will go beyond the gridiron one day.

“Coach Judge is like a second father-figure,” Chambliss said about Judge following the Rebels’ win over Florida earlier this month. “Really a genuine guy, just a great coach as well. He’s always just so attentive to everything, every detail and he helps us out as quarterbacks. He’s always one step ahead of us too. If one play goes a different way than we think then he’s already on it. He just does a great job having our mindsets ready for whatever could happen because in football anything can happen. I’m glad that I met a guy like him because he’s really done a great job influencing me and just bettering me as a human being.”

Going back in time to Ole Miss’ under-the-radar Division II acquisition last summer, Judge was among the assistant coaches that were confident in what the tape showed.

So much so that Ole Miss was willing to top Temple’s, ~$300,000, NIL offer at the last minute.

“It was a season highlight (reel), so it wasn’t one or two quick plays,” Judge recalled of Chambliss’ 2024 film at Ferris State. “We watched the tape he put out there for the portal. But he was making enough plays that just jumped out at you. I mean, you could see this guy, and then you research, all right, who is this guy? You understand, all right, he just won the national championship at Ferris State. This guy’s been one of the best players at that level.”

“There’s good football players at every level. Like, you learn that really going through the draft. You scour, you find a lot of really good players. There’ve been a lot of really good players that (I) have come across, you know, our desk to evaluate for the draft that you might not really anticipate this guy jumping out at you. Then you turn the tape on, you’re like, wow.”

Now, Judge finds himself back in a similar spot to where he was going into his first rodeo with the Rebels in 2024. Like Dart’s final year, Chambliss will enter the 2026 season with sky-high individual and team expectations. At the time of this writing, Chambliss owns one of the highest preseason odds to hoist this year’s Heisman Trophy and will have another golden opportunity to turn himself into the Rebels' next first round NFL quarterback this fall.

Burning for the right shot?

Ole Miss Rebels quarterbacks coach Joe Judge against the Miami Hurricanes during the 2026 Fiesta Bowl and semifinal game of the College Football Playoff at State Farm Stadium. | USA Today

According to a source familiar with Judge, another chance to be a head coach someday likely ‘burns inside him’.

“He’s the kind of guy who’s got a lot of pride, and I’m sure that it burns inside him for another chance. A chance to make it right and a chance to show that he can do this job effectively,” the source said. “By any stretch of the imagination we all know that the Giants' situation for him was a disappointment. I think that will galvanize him and make him that much stronger to want to bounce back and to want to succeed in the next job.”

Judge has generated his fair share of head coaching interest around the country, but Ole Miss has managed to keep him around the Manning Center every time thus far. Maybe the Rebels won’t be able to one day if the right offer or fit comes around. But for now, Judge is enjoying life as a key SEC assistant for Ole Miss. His son, Sean, a redshirt sophomore long snapper for the Rebels, is also along for the ride in Oxford.

Golding has noticed the impact Judge has made since his arrival and uses his past experiences to the team’s advantage.

“Having been the head coach of the Giants (and) come in here as an analyst role, to be a backup quarterback coach, I think speaks volumes of who he is,” Golding previously said of Judge. “And then on top of it, for his son to be on our team, obviously for the family being in Oxford (and) for what this place has already meant to him up to this point, he’s fully invested.”

“It’s really nice to be able to have a guy from a leadership standpoint that’s been in the role that I’m in right now — to be able to close the door and bring him in and ask his opinion and say, ‘Hey, how did you do this?’ Not that you’re always going to do it that way, but that you got a realistic opinion of somebody that’s done it.”

Judge and the Rebels will begin fall camp in Oxford, Aug. 6, exactly one month prior to the season-opener against Louisville in Nashville.

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