Lane Kiffin's messy exit would have proved to be worse than it was were it not for Pete Golding's relentless efforts to retain as much staff as possible in Ole Miss.
The former Rebels coach poached some and threatened to lure away the rest of the staff at Ole Miss after being denied to coach in the College Football Playoff.
Pete Golding on what it took to get Charlie Weis Jr. back
After cancelling his introductory press conference to streamline some much-needed focus on the team, new Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding opened up on what it took to pull Weis Jr. back to the Grove, even if it turns out to be just for the College Football Playoff.
"A lot of these guys on Sunday just wanted to create opportunity. And what I mean by that, the message of them leaving the building was never that they weren’t coaching in the game. The message was 1,000% I’m coaching in the game. I have to give me and my family an opportunity at the end of this, whenever that is, what’s best for me, my career and my family. So there was never any inkling at all that Charlie Weis wasn’t calling the plays in the games," Golding said in his press conference following the final CFP rankings reveal.
"And that came from him to me and him to Keith Carter. And at the end of this thing, whether that’s him being the OC at LSU or him being the OC here, that’s up to him and his family. But, you know, I made it a point to him. Charlie, I was like, ‘I don’t want to talk about 2026. This isn’t about 2026.’ It’s about 2025, right? And doing what we’re responsible to do for the players, right, to put them in the best position to have success because they deserve that."
Golding's philosophy is exactly what Ole Miss needs after wasting weeks on focusing on everything non-program-focused.
That said, with Kiffin gone, Golding might still have to test out which roles would suit whom, but overall, Weis Jr. would have the keys to the Rebels' offense in their rematch vs. Tulane in the first round of the College Football Playoff.