Pete Golding to remain Ole Miss defensive play-caller after advice from Brent Venables

After taking over for Lane Kiffin during the College Football Playoff, Pete Golding continued to call defensive plays at Ole Miss. He will continue to do so after getting advice from a fellow SEC coach.

Golding told ESPN’s Heather Dinich he spoke with Oklahoma’s Brent Venables, who told him to continue calling defensive plays. Venables delegated those duties after becoming OU’s head coach, but took them back last season. The Sooners became one of the top defenses in the SEC, holding teams to a league-best 272.5 yards per game.

While speaking with Golding, Venables encouraged the new Ole Miss coach to stick with what got him the role. As a result, Golding will remain the Rebels’ play-caller in 2026.

“He’s just like, ‘Look, you got that job for a lot of reasons, but the primary reason is you’ve always done a really good job with the defense, and if you’re able to do that, you need to continue to do that,'” Golding told Dinich. “I still want to be heavily involved and still call it and I enjoy doing that, so that kind of solidified if you’re going to do it, make sure I get really good people around me that can help in the management of things that allows me to watch enough tape to put our kids in a good spot.”

As Ole Miss made a run to the College Football Playoff semifinal last year, the Rebels allowed 348 yards per game. They also held teams to 21.1 points on average, ranking ninth in the SEC.

Pete Golding planned to be ‘more of a CEO’

Given the timing of Kiffin’s high-profile departure for LSU, which occurred after the regular season, Pete Golding opted for continuity at the time. He then wanted to move into more of a “CEO” type role in his first full season at the helm. Ole Miss also hired former NFL assistant Patrick Toney to be its defensive coordinator.

However, Toney chose to return to the league as the Atlanta Falcons’ passing game coordinator. The Rebels then named Bryan Brown as defensive coordinator. But it will be Golding calling the shots, and he credited the conversation with Brent Venables for the change in tune.

“Originally that’s why I didn’t want to take a head job, because I had it in my mind when I was going to take a job I was going to be tired of calling plays and running a room and going on the road and I was going to be more of a CEO and kind of give that piece up,” Golding said. “It always had kind of been my mindset that if you take one of these, that’s what you need to do, and it kind of changed for me to be honest with you when I called Brent Venables.”