OXFORD – The last few weeks or so have been quite the whirlwind for Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter. But now that the game of “Where Will Lane Kiffin Coach in 2026?” has finally been answered, he feels good about the state of the Rebels.

Kiffin, who led the Rebels for six seasons and this year’s team to an 11-1 record and almost-certain berth in the College Football Playoff, took the LSU job just days after the regular-season finale against Mississippi State. Defensive coordinator Pete Golding was elevated to head coach, and Ole Miss now awaits its playoff fate Sunday.

The Daily Journal spoke with Carter last week to discuss the last few days and weeks, Kiffin’s departure, the football program’s immediate and long-term future and what a playoff game in Oxford is going to look like.

This interview has been edited and shortened for clarity and brevity.

Daily Journal: What have the last few weeks been like for you?

Carter: “It’s been challenging. Just a lot of distraction, obviously, and a lot of long hours and not a lot of sleep and just your mind racing a lot on different possibilities. You’re working really hard to hold onto a coach and be there for that person, but then also knowing that there’s a possibility that he may leave, and so you’re working on a parallel path on what the next coaching option could be and those type of things.

“So it’s been tough and obviously culminated in a really tough probably 72 hours kind of post-Egg Bowl. But man, I feel like we came out on the other side, in a really, really good spot, and honestly couldn’t be more excited about Pete Golding and what he’s going to bring to us, obviously in the short term with this playoff run, but then man, long term, what he can do for this program.”

Are you able to confirm the report that Lane was threatening to take some of his staff with him if he wasn’t allowed to coach?

“That was the indication that we got.”

Why was it so important for him not to coach the playoff if he was leaving? … From your perspective, why was that a non-starter?

“Well, and first of all, we had told him that weeks ago, that there was not going to be an option for him to coach in the playoffs if he took another job. Obviously the week of the Egg Bowl, there was some scuttlebutt that, should he coach in that game or not, is it best for the team? And of course, he’s our coach at that point. … The chancellor and I thought about that a lot and we felt like it made sense, obviously, for him to coach that game. We wanted to make sure that our team and everybody was locked in and our staff was locked in, and obviously they played really well, which was great. But once you tell us that you’re moving on and you basically decide that that decision is bigger than staying with the guys, then you need to move on, you know? And that was kind of our thought process.

What in your eyes made Pete the guy, and were there any reservations on his part about being ready for the moment? I know he’s still pretty young. I think we all (knew) he’s going to be a head coach at some point. Were there any reservations on his end?

“No. No. No. Pete had a plan. Pete had a short-term plan and he has a long-term plan for Ole Miss and, here’s the thing about Pete. Pete came from Alabama because he valued being at Ole Miss. And he wanted to do some things for his career. You look at the Ole Miss record since he arrived here three years ago, and those are the three best years we’ve had. And so he’s a huge part of that. Incredible recruiter. A guy that just, the guys will run through a wall for. And so, yeah, no reservations from him, no reservations from us. And obviously, he and I are friends. We’ve been around each other. We’ve worked together professionally. But this is a new relationship now, from AD to head coach, and man, I look forward to growing that relationship and giving him everything he needs to be successful.”

In terms of resources and whatnot, you guys were matching LSU, correct?

“I could elaborate on that one, but that one’s almost like just a ‘yes’ and a period. … We were going to match anything that they had and again, we may not be the biggest donor base, we may not have the most alums, but we have resources and we’re creative. We’re going to find ways to do things … kind of first-movers in all of these spaces.”

Especially given how the last few weeks, months, whatever you want to call it, have gone, what do you think a playoff game is going to mean for Ole Miss and Oxford right now?

“I think the playoff game in general was going to be incredible, no matter what. What it means to Oxford, I think I saw maybe some of the folks from Visit Oxford saying it was a $50-60 million type monetary situation for Oxford, a weekend like this. So it was always going to be awesome – to add that to Oxford in December–— was going to be cool.

“But I think kind of under the circumstances, it’s going to be even more of an incredible experience, because I think we’re going to have a galvanization of fans and people that are going to be cheering these guys on like we’ve never seen before. Pete Golding’s first game as the head coach being a playoff game in Oxford, Mississippi. It’s just going to be really, really fun. First and foremost, happy for our players. Happy for our staff, our fans. But man, for the community of Oxford, it’s going to be a really cool thing.”