OXFORD – Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding isn’t worried about all his defense lost up front. The names will be different, he said, but he expects similar results.
Golding is entering his third year as the Rebels’ defensive coordinator after spending the previous five years leading Nick Saban’s defenses at Alabama. Golding’s first season in 2023 saw the Rebels jump from 56th nationally in points per game allowed to 34th (22.1 ppg). With nearly all of its starters back from an 11-win team and key transfer portal additions like defensive linemen Walter Nolen and Princely Umanmielen, linebacker Chris “Pooh” Paul Jr. and cornerback Trey Amos, Ole Miss’ defense took a massive jump forward in 2024, ranking second nationally at 14.4 points per game allowed, the fewest points per game allowed by an Ole Miss defense since allowing 12.9 points per game in 1993. The Rebels led the nation in sacks per game and tackles for loss and finished second in rush defense (80.5 yards per game allowed).
Golding, who on Thursday confirmed the Clarion-Ledger’s report he had signed a new deal with the program, knows that what happened a year ago is done and over with. The 2025 Rebels have a blank slate.
“The legacy of that team’s over, and that defense is over. This defense hasn’t done anything yet,” Golding said. “The standard’s the same … but we have to come to work every day. I think we have enough talent in the room. But we had some tough guys in that room that had high football IQ and loved to compete and play football. And I think we have the same type of guys right now.”
Just two starters return to the Rebels’ defense in 2025 – junior linebackers Suntarine Perkins and TJ Dottery – but Golding believes his group will once again be a force to be reckoned with, particularly up front. Nolen, Umanmielen, JJ Pegues and Jared Ivey are gone, but an increased effort on recruiting highly touted, local defensive linemen in recent signing classes and a few additions via the transfer portal have Golding confident.
The goal, Golding said, is “to stop the run in order to have fun.” Stout defensive linemen make that a lot simpler.
“From a front standpoint, I don’t think we’re going to take a step back from last year,” Golding said. “There’s going to be some different names, but obviously the big thing on those guys, they’ve been in the system. And I think we’re going to have some guys that – y’all already know their name already, having been big-time recruits – they’re going to have to have big years for us.”
Homegrown talent on the line figures to help ease the losses of last year’s star-studded rotation up front. Sophomore Kam Franklin, a Lake Cormorant native, has taken a major jump forward according to Golding. Redshirt sophomore Jamarious Brown, who is from Moss Point, was a freshman All-American last season. Sophomore Will Echoles was a highly touted prospect out of Houston, Mississippi, and Germantown’s Zxavian Harris has started 10 games in his career.
Golding used the transfer portal this offseason to upgrade the edge rushing equation, adding LSU’s Da’Shawn Womack and Nebraska’s Princewill Umanmielen. Golding noted the Rebels did not feel the need to add any interior linemen in the portal.
“We were showing ‘Bama tape when you first get here. You have to put a product on the film,” Golding said. “I think that was the exciting thing of what the legacy of that last group created for them was like, ‘Hey, we’re going to do it at Ole Miss, because they just did it. They just led the SEC. I can stay in my state, compete in the best conference in college football and still lead the SEC in defense.’”
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