Critics have their reasons for not believing in Pete Golding's success rate as Ole Miss head coach, even though he's just coming off a College Football Playoff segment that he entirely led in the most chaotic circumstances possible.
He's has not led an entire season yet, and that is a reason, however small, to have reservations about him.
However, thinking they'll take a major step back because of all the staff poaching and mass exodus from players and dropping to as low as a Top 20 team instead of a Top 10 — when they're currently among the Top 5, sounds more like a worst-case scenario than a future prediction.
ND Insider presents grim prediction for Pete Golding
During Monday’s segment of the “Crain & Cone” podcast, Notre Dame insider Bryan Driskell took Ole Miss's name when asked about the most overrated preseason team.
“I think Ole Miss would be mine,” Driskell said. “They’re a team poised to take a step back. I think everything kind of just clicked for them last year and they had a lot of portal losses. Their schedule’s really tough, they had some key losses in the trenches on both sides of the ball."
Driskell nailed it with some of his concerns, but he didn't consider the follow-up stories. Golding has been securing top talent from both high schools and the transfer portal. The Rebels even ended up giving LSU a run for their No. 1 transfer portal status.
And all that's not even taking into account Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy, the hottest players entering 2026 season playing under Golding.
“I understand why people rank them high, but I have them as a borderline top-20 team as opposed to a top-10 team. It’s not that I’m throwing strays at them, I think Ole Miss is just gonna take a bigger step back.”
Ironically, Crain & Cone themselves have ranked the Rebels as No. 4 in their post-spring SEC power rankings.
Anyone can debate the rankings all they want, but they can't question a consistent scoreboard. That's exactly what Golding's message coming out of the spring practice was: Rebels are taking it one game at a time and focusing on what they can control.
It'll be interesting to see the critics stunned to silence once the Rebs start stacking up the wins on the table.
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