No Lane Kiffin, no problem for Pete Golding and Ole Miss. Since Kiffin’s departure for LSU, the Rebels have won back-to-back College Football Playoff bouts and are one win away from a National Championship berth. It may be the roster and staff Kiffin built, but their CFP success is theirs alone.
Tonight’s Fiesta Bowl semifinal against Miami represents the culmination of what might be the wildest six weeks in college football history. A first-time head coach. A program in supposed disarray. A Division II transfer at quarterback. And yet here they are, 13-1, one game from playing for it all.
How Pete Golding Turned Chaos Into College Football Playoff History
When Kiffin bolted for Baton Rouge on Nov. 30, the consensus was clear: Ole Miss was cooked. The timing, just days before the CFP bracket reveal, felt like a betrayal. Senior defensive tackle Zxavian Harris called it “a slap in the face” before adding “like a slap and the backhand.”
Enter Pete Golding.
The 41-year-old defensive coordinator, elevated to interim head coach mere hours after Kiffin’s departure, inherited a program in turmoil and a playoff berth to manage.
What Golding did have was a plan. And two weeks later, a 41-10 demolition of Tulane gave Ole Miss its first CFP victory in program history. Then came the Sugar Bowl, a 39-34 thriller over SEC champion Georgia that announced to the country: the Rebels aren’t some pity party. They’re a legitimate threat.
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Golding’s approach has been refreshingly direct. When asked this week about sending a message to his predecessor, he didn’t flinch: “The message is, ‘I’m replaceable, you’re replaceable, our players are replaceable.’ If one person derails it, it’s probably not built right.”
That’s the culture shift.
Speaking of culture, Golding credits the timing of Kiffin’s exit, Â counterintuitive as it sounds, for allowing the players to lock in. “There was already a culture created,” he said. “The only thing that was different was who’s running them out of the tunnel.”
Oh, and about that tunnel: fans at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium were chanting “Pete!” as Golding walked off the field after the Tulane win. He tossed his visor into the crowd, a Kiffin signature move, repurposed.
Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss Is the Postseason’s Breakout Star
The numbers alone are absurd. At 6’1″ and 200 pounds, Trinidad Chambliss — yes, the Division II transfer from Ferris State — has thrown for 3,660 yards and 21 touchdowns with just three interceptions this season.
But it’s the playoff tape that’s turned heads. Against Georgia, Chambliss completed 30 passes for 362 yards and two touchdowns, scrambling, extending plays, and making NFL-caliber throws under duress. He earned Sugar Bowl MVP honors and drew comparisons to Fran Tarkenton and Michael Vick from analysts who’ve run out of superlatives.
His 359-yard, four-touchdown performance in the Egg Bowl secured SEC Newcomer of the Year honors, only the second player ever to win that award. The first? Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia last year.
Tonight, Chambliss faces his toughest test yet: Miami’s pass rush. The Hurricanes have 12 sacks in two playoff games and a 40.5% pressure rate. They sacked Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed seven times. They held Ohio State’s Julian Sayin to 14 points.
MORE: Ole Miss Down 4 Offensive Coaches Against Miami’s Elite Pass Rush
If Chambliss escapes pressure the way he did against Georgia? Ole Miss wins. If Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor collapse the pocket? This Cinderella run ends in Glendale.
The supporting cast is ready. Running back Kewan Lacy has rushed for touchdowns in eight consecutive games, amassing 877 yards over that span. His 23 rushing touchdowns rank third in SEC history, trailing only a pair of Alabama backs who won national titles.
Golding won’t have all his offensive coaches tonight as tight ends coach Joe Cox and receivers coach George McDonald stayed in Baton Rouge to build Kiffin’s roster. But offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. made the trip. So did the chip on this team’s shoulder.
Per PFSN’s College Football Playoff Meter, Ole Miss holds a 48.2% chance of reaching the national championship game. Not bad for a team that was supposed to implode.
Win or lose tonight, Golding has already authored the most improbable coaching debut in CFP history. No head coach has ever left a playoff-bound team mid-run. The Rebels didn’t just survive the abandonment — they’ve thrived.
And if they get past Miami? Indiana or Oregon awaits in the title game.
Either way, this is Ole Miss’s story now. Not Kiffin’s.