Why John David Baker’s Return to Ole Miss Was Simple

OXFORD | Ole Miss’ offensive coaching staff went through major changes immediately following the completion of its regular season last year. However, the wave of new pieces brought back a familiar face in John David Baker.

Just ahead of last year’s College Football Playoffs, Baker was announced as the Rebels’ next offensive coordinator to replace Charlie Weis Jr., and would go on to play a critical game planning role during the postseason. For Baker, his decision to return to the Rebels — after a two-year gap between stints — was quite simple.

Why?

Ole Miss assistant celebrates with Jaxson Dart following a score (2023). | Courtesy of John David Baker's Instagram.

Familiarity with the environment, offensive staff and similar system played a sizable role in making Baker and Ole Miss a match once again. Only this time around Baker is in sole control of playcalling duties and now under a defensive-minded head coach in Oxford.

“He’s a dude. He’s ultra consistent and I think the thing that I’ve learned the most over the stretch of the playoffs, is his ability to compartmentalize things,” Baker said of Pete Golding following Monday’s practice. “I just think about when I got here in December, just everything that was going on inside the building (and) outside the building — playoffs, transfer portal, retaining players and oh by the way, you’re having to game plan and call a defense. His ability to just handle all that and be the same dude, that’s not easy to do. There’s not a lot of people in the country that can do that. It confirmed what I thought.”

Since his return to the Manning Center, there haven’t been any notable or lasting growing pains.

“Obviously I have a comfort level here, having been here before, but also a comfort level with the people in this building,” Baker explained. “For me to step into the situation — it’s one deal if it’s a whole new offensive staff, but in this case obviously you retain Coach Judge and Coach Garrison. For me, there’s so much familiarity and then there’s some of these off the field guys, analysts that have been in this system for so long that I’ve known and worked with for the first time. There has not been any growing pains, I think the hardest piece for me was guys understanding that it’s the same offense. There’s been tweaks, there’s been things that we’ve changed when we left here two years ago, but at its core it’s the same thing.”

One position that the Rebels have spent all offseason figuring out, and are still working through during fall camp, is the player that’s going to emerge as their starting right tackle.

When asked, Baker noted that the input on the starting position will be a ‘collective’ task to iron out between himself, Golding and offensive line coach John Garrison. Unprompted, Baker specifically pointed out senior Miami transfer Tommy Kinsler IV and sophomore Connor Howes as the competing candidates.

Still, it’s going to be a drawn out position battle that won’t be established until near the end of preseason camp.

“It’s a collective deal from me, Coach Garrison, Coach Golding — everybody’s involved. It’s a daily thing,” Baker added. “We keep stats and production every single day of practice and if you’re a guy that’s not producing, you’re probably going to go down on the depth chart. That depth chart ain’t set in stone, it’s in pencil, so it can change each and every day. Those guys are doing a great job, throwing different guys out there. Whether it’s Connor Howes or Tommy Kinsler, they’ve got their hands full with what’s on the other side of the ball, but they’re doing a good job. It’s a collective deal and, like I said, every day it’s probably going to change.

Baker wasn’t ready to name a starter if the Rebels were to line up for their season-opener ‘tomorrow’. But what Baker did say showed how much confidence he has in Garrison and the comfortability he helps provide around the building.

“Yeah, I don’t know that I’m going to answer that. But I know whoever it is, they’ll be ready to go. Talk about comfortability, being back and growing pains and all that stuff. The thing that made me most comfortable about coming back was John Garrison being our offensive line coach,” Baker said. “He’s the best offensive line coach in the country and he’s going to have guys ready to go up front.”

Ole Miss’ offensive coordinator also noted that Kewan Lacy’s season could look a little different from a workload standpoint. In what was a record-breaking year for Lacy, with 1,567 rushing yards and 24 rushing touchdowns, he also finished his sophomore campaign with 335 total touches (306 carries).

In the Rebels’ opening-round win against Tulane in the playoffs, Lacy hurt his shoulder and had to undergo offseason clean-up surgery on it. Though Lacy will still be among the team leaders in touches, the approach could look a little different as a junior likely entering his final collegiate season.

“I don’t want him to carry that ball that much. Now, to me, the difference is carries and touches. Like, is he going to get the same amount of touches? Yes," Baker explained. "But in different ways because to me running that ball that many times between the tackles, you’re going to break and he did. He had to have shoulder surgery in the offseason. My deal is he can’t do that again, that’s hard. The shelf life for a running back is short as it is and that was my sell to him…’You’re going to touch the ball in different ways’. That was something that I think intrigued him."

“The other piece is we’ve got really good backs. We’ve got a good running back room of guys that can carry the load and take some load off of him, to where we can move him around and do different things with him.”

During his second full year coordinating the ECU offense in 2025, Baker orchestrated an ECU offense that ranked No. 15 in total offense (460.4 yards per game), and No. 31 in scoring offense (32.7 points per contest)

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