You won’t find a soul in the Magnolia State who’ll ever forget the Rebels' 2025 run—it’s all-timer material.
Even as the Rebels prepare to flip the page to next season, there will always be questions on how Pete Golding managed to pull through the team in dire conditions like that when the stakes were the highest.
SEC Now's host couldn't stop the obvious playoff X-factor question from rolling off of him during their recent interview with Golding.
Pete Golding credits locker room for CFP success
Golding's answer just proved why he has earned everyone's trust in Oxford this fast.
"We got a lot of good guys in this building. And I think there are a lot of guys that are in certain positions from an administrative standpoint. But more importantly, it's the guys in the locker room," Golding said, crediting the entire CFP run to the student-athletes.
Of course, he credited their staff as well for handling the massive blindside of Lane Kiffin bailing on them in the middle of the season. But Golding admitted how all they did was put the focus back on football, get the players where they needed to be mentally to win, and then the locker room handled it from there.
"I think the biggest thing was putting the focus back on football as fast as we can."
"I thought it was really important to put the focus back on football. Just really worry about the things that we could control. Develop really good plans in all three phases. And then at that point, I think they just needed somebody for them outside of football on top of it. But they still wanted to be held accountable."
However, that didn't change the fact that he didn't even mention his name once, while crediting the players multiple times.
"But I think a big part of it was the dudes in the locker room, to be honest with you, how they're wired and how tough and competitive they were. And they weren't tired of playing. And I think that's the biggest thing once you get in those playoffs."
Golding's okay with not getting fame, and that could really seperate Ole Miss from Kiffin's era and push them to have an even deeper run this season.