😎 BIG: Pete Golding's TOP MOVE for Ole Miss 2026 was only POSSIBLE because of Lane Kiffin's SHENANIGANS

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Everyone saw the playoff run, but not everybody saw what Pete Golding was doing.

You are a Lockdown Ole Miss, your daily podcast on the Ole Miss Rebels, part of the

Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

Hello, I'm Stephen Willis.

On today's show, Pete Golding finally speaks to the media today after the playoff run

will explain why managing a leaked talent is critical to this season, but we will start

with the 4D Chess move from last season that might be still shaping Ole Miss.

All that and more on today's Lockdown Ole Miss podcast.

The 4D Chess that I am referring to is the role of John David Baker during the playoff

run.

We did shows during that time frame of kind of guessing what Pete Golding might be thinking

about, and honestly, it might be more complex than even what we thought at that point.

John David Baker was hired just so you know at the very beginning of the December cycle,

somewhere before the first playoff game against the two-line green wave.

It was in the fallout when Lane Kiffin was pulling all of the shenanigans he could during

that time frame with his staff and stuff like that, pre-portaling, tampering, all of that

stuff was happening, but Pete Golding used that to his advantage.

He decided to play a little bit of 4D Chess, something that people assigned with Lane from

time to time.

But the 4D Chess that I was thinking of is hey, let's retain as many of these offensive

coaches as possible, many of these offensive players as possible, and bring in a coach

to try to maximize that school skill set in case they come back.

At the same time that coach can be building a transfer of portal pre-portal roster before

the playoff run happens, and the longer Ole Miss goes, the better off that they will

be.

Ole Miss of course played three playoff games, and John David Baker got more instrumental

as the playoffs went on.

We're not going to worry about the transfer of portal right now.

We will simply worry about the offense.

Now the co-offensive coordinator when Charlie Wise got to Ole Miss was John David Baker.

They were co-s.

Now the play collar at the time was Charlie Wise Jr. because of photographic memory and

stuff that we talked all about.

But he was a good offensive coordinator that handled the bulk of the work when Lane

Kiffin wasn't Ole Miss.

It took a long time for people to realize that, but I'm glad they finally did.

Charlie Wise is a good dude.

As soon as it was decided that everything was going on, Charlie Wise gave his commitment

that he was going to coach the offense throughout the run of the playoffs.

It didn't matter what.

He was going to be there.

If you want proof of that happening, look at the contract extension that Charlie Wise

got to make sure that he stayed on the staff whenever they got worried that Charlie Wise

Jr. was going to stick around.

Pete Golding saw everything that was going on and realized the whole time that he wanted

John David Baker.

Remember at that time frame, John David Baker was a very hot commodity for Virginia Tech

and for South Carolina, but John David Baker wanted the Ole Miss job.

I think it was pretty much in the cards from very early on that John David Baker was going

to come back.

Pete Golding still needed to play a little bit of 40 chess as well.

We have Charlie Wise Jr. that said he was going to stay throughout the playoffs.

That became Iron Club.

John David Baker was coming in at the beginning of December.

He had to make sure that no shenanigans were going to happen from the very beginning

that could kind of throw a wrench into this whole play.

So John David Baker was sitting there and got to look at the roster throughout the playoffs.

Once everything got ironed out, he got to see everything.

He knows what plays that Trinidad Chambers is comfortable with.

He knows what plays that he's not comfortable with, all of that stuff.

It's like he had a preseason when it came to the playoff run having three games, having

a bigger influence in each and every one until the end.

So the point where they had to, by the end, they had a solid relationship.

Kiwan Lacey had a solid relationship with John David Baker.

All of these offensive stars, there was a solid bond built during that playoff run because

it was over a month to where he was in that room.

I get that they had to decide things and all of that, but the relationship was there.

John David Baker took the, what he likes, what he doesn't like, the tempo of everything.

I think Chuck Roundsville was talking about on the, on three podcast with Ben Garrett today,

talking about realizing the flow that the tempo offense needs to be in and all of that.

He basically got about a month and a half of OJT, OJT that he didn't need because he

necessarily been on the staff for three years, but you got to see the play collar aspect

of it.

And he got to step away a little bit and see it from the outside, just kind of look what's

going on.

He knows what's work.

He knows the process.

He knows what is possible for an offensive coordinator.

Now, the question for me is going to be how does John David Baker take this information?

All of this stuff, this run that they had during the playoffs, he is perfectly in position

with the best quarterback and the best running back in college football.

We will talk about that in the next segment.

But how does he take the information that he got during the playoff run?

And I'm assuming it's going to be very good because he is an extremely bright guy.

He was the coach of Ole Miss in 2021, as a tight-ends coach, co-offensive coordinator

in 2022 and 2023.

2024 and 2025, he was the offensive coordinator at East Carolina, where he took an offense

that was routinely in the 130s nationally and made them into a top 15 top 20 unit, even

though they had G6 players on their roster.

They were going to be outmatched at certain points of every game.

John David Baker wanted to come back, but he has basically the building blocks that has

already been attached through Jeff Levy.

Because if you remember correctly, Jeff Levy was the first offensive coordinator that

John David Baker worked under at Ole Miss.

The reason he became the co-offensive coordinator was because of a pay raise because he was

able to recruit Jackson Dart and Michael Trigg to Ole Miss.

He was a reward.

But then you saw the fingerprints of the John David Baker offense all over what was going

on, especially in the passing game.

What you saw in the passing game in 2024 and 2025 and 2023, a lot of that was John David

Baker's fingerprints all over, especially the sale routes at the end of the game.

I give John David Baker 100% credit for realizing that Dayquan Wright was the mismatch,

for all mists against the Miami Hurricanes.

It was too little, too late.

I get it.

But the touchdown at the end, John David Baker was coaching the tight ends that game because

Lane Kiffin had pulled coaches off of the Ole Miss staff.

Anybody that would go, you had to go back to Baton Rouge.

So John David Baker had to step in and coach this offense and is my belief that he saw the

tight end sale route from the HBAC position becoming the weapon.

That's a play that is comfortable for Trinidad Jamblis and Dayquan Wright is an absolute weapon

with the ball in his hands.

Down the field, I believe that he saw that coming in as the tight ends coach.

He saw the opening of the space.

John David Baker's passing offense has a lot of air raid type principles, but mainly

it's just the principles and concepts of what's going on.

The switch releases all of that stuff.

That is a John David Baker staple, the same stuff that he did at East Carolina, the same

stuff that he did at Ole Miss whenever he was here before.

Pete Golding seeing all of this and realizing, okay, we have a really good offensive coordinator

and we have an unknown number of games because this all started before the playoff run, an

unknown number of games to get him up to speed and comfortability because the reality of

the situation is when Charlie wise junior left to go to LSU, it should have taken a little

bit of time.

If Pete Golding fell for the trap that, hey, we need to hold off and try and get Charlie

wise junior and John David Baker goes away and you have another coach coming in.

He's starting him blind.

He has no relationship with these players.

He has nothing to lean back on as far as what he has seen with his own eyes.

John David Baker got three playoff games, got to treat it like a preseason for the 2026

season and now this team is in a position to absolutely explode offensively.

This is a team that averaged over 30 points a game against everybody.

With the exception of the Miami Hurricanes and the playoffs and I think they got 27 in

that game, but they scored on everybody.

They went over 30 points twice against the Georgia Bulldogs.

Charlie wise did a fantastic job with the team a year ago.

This team with John David Baker, with the best quarterback in the country, with the best

running back in the country, with wide receivers that are going to be dynamic.

With the offensive line that is going to be dynamic, although you don't need it to be great

because of what Trinidad Champles can do.

I think this is an offense that can routinely score above 40 points against absolutely anybody.

I don't know if there's a defense out there that can completely shut down this offense the way I sit right now.

And John David Baker is a large part of that and being able to have access to this team during the game.

To have access to this team during the playoff run is a huge part of that.

Pete Golding absolutely played 40 chess because this team has something that previous Ole Miss teams did not have.

Anyway, thanks for watching the Lockdown Ole Miss podcast.

The most watched Ole Miss podcast out there, part of the Lockdown podcast network.

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Because of fans like you watching content like this and thank you very much for that.

Now, Ole Miss has a Ferrari on offense in your one, John David Baker's job is simple.

Don't wreck it. We'll explain that next.

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We talked about keeping the Ferrari on the road for John David Baker.

Keep it between the lies.

Just don't wreck it.

Because the reality of what's going on.

You've got the best quarterback in all of college football.

He finished eight in the Heisman trophy with a coach that did not promote him at all.

He did not mention the thing.

Just tried to keep the value of that player down and suppressed enough to where he could transfer to wherever he was going.

Because at that point, I think it was either for the LSU.

The only thing that was for certain as he wasn't staying at all miss.

Trinidad Chambers.

Last year 294, 445, 3,937 yards, 22 touchdowns, three interceptions.

And that was in 13 games, I think, because he didn't play the first two.

But Trinidad Chambers really, really good player.

And listen, that game against Georgia was, was special, man.

That game was unreal.

And the sugarball he completely took over that game and became a superstar.

He is somebody that has Ole Miss fans that completely ready to go.

Now, if you look at running backs, Kiwan Lacey, 306 carries.

I know that they don't want to give him 306 carries this year.

He had 1567 yards, which is a tie for the school record, by the way.

24 touchdowns for this player.

He reminds me a lot of Derek McFadden.

And the new number one is Duce Alexander.

Had a diving catch in the very first practice.

He is going to be a star.

Had an 88 yard touchdown for Ole Miss against Mississippi State.

Our catch is 684 yards, two touchdowns.

And add that with the transfers that came in.

This Ole Miss team is going to be pretty good.

So that's what I mean by keep the Ferrari between the lives.

If you can just do it, you have the talent to beat everybody on your schedule.

The only way that you lose to people on your schedule is if A,

you don't take them seriously or don't prepare well,

or do any of the little things that can get you beat.

We talked about yesterday him adopting the Sabin like culture of attention to detail

and all of that stuff to where players thinking about that is going to win close games.

That's how you get from a 10 win a year average to an 11 or 12 win per year average.

And Kurt Signetti is an example of a coach that has taken the Nick Sabin model up to the next level.

And now he has Indiana winning national titles.

Absolutely crazy. Good football coach.

Good going.

So he is really good.

So John David Baker has to keep these players rolling.

And we mentioned in the first segment him being able to work with them for about a month and a half.

It seemed like of seeing what was going on and building up that rapport handed up being able to land.

I'm trying to dodge Hambliss and Kiwan Lacey and all of these guys came back.

Because when you looked at the transfer portal when it came open the next day,

now granted the NCAA work like crazy to keep trying to that out the field,

but that wasn't happening because Trinidad deserved to be on the field.

But Trinidad staying at Ole Miss Kiwan staying at Ole Miss.

And honestly, if the NCAA wouldn't have pulled the crap that they pulled,

I think Kaden Lee would have stayed at Ole Miss.

But the way it sits right now, you're like, okay, these are the holes that we need to fill.

And they went out and got unbelievably talented wide receivers.

Ole Miss has a niche that they hit in the wide receiver transfer portal market.

You don't get Eric Singleton, who everybody wants that's going to cost two million.

You go out and get Darryl Gill and not any disrespect against Darryl Gill,

but he is an extremely talented wide receiver that had horrible quarterback play.

The same thing with Deshaun Stribling, the same thing has happened over and over again.

Ole Miss gets wide receivers that are extremely talented that just have bad quarterbacks.

And they did that with Darryl Gill and John Tay Cook.

John Tay Cook is somebody that I think has a chance to be very special.

Elijah, more level if he breaks out.

I have a theory about him.

We will talk about it as it gets closer.

It's going to be on John David Baker to figure out how to make these elite players work together.

We talked about the relationship that he had back in the season,

but it's going to be how he deals with those elite players.

And if he can make it work, they're going to score a lot of points.

They're going to be crazy explosive because this is the reality, okay?

Everybody that's watching and listening is podcast that doesn't agree with me.

This is what I have to say about that.

You have the best quarterback in the country, bar none.

But we're not even going to talk about that.

But that's the point where it starts.

When you're playing defensively against teams,

they're going to immediately focus on Trinidad Chambers.

Well, next to him is the best running back in the country,

who ran for 1,500 yards in the year before and 24 touchdowns.

So you've got to at least split your focus and now it's run pass and all of this.

You've got a couple of jets on the outside.

Darryl, you can absolutely fly.

Duce Alexander can absolutely fly.

John T. Cook was an electric factory at DeSoto, high in Texas.

If he puts it all together,

which he started to do at Syracuse last year with what was it?

45 catches.

Let's see with the number.

45 catches, 549 yards, two touchdowns with no quarterback play.

If you keep that between the tracks,

this is an offense that's going to score and score a lot.

The question that you have going into spring practice

are the tackle positions.

Tres Davis, in my opinion, is going to start at left tackle.

That's going to happen.

You have the middle of your offensive line, Patrick Kutus,

Bryson Sanders, Delano Townsend, that taking care of.

Four out of the five, I think are done.

Comes down to the right tackle position.

This is a very serious turn.

The Tommy Kinsler, the Conner Halls, those type players.

If they can make it work,

you're going to see a very good football team offensively for Ole Miss.

We haven't even talked about what happened on the defensive side of the ball.

For the first time, in about a half a decade,

and in the first time in the NIL era,

the defensive side of the ball may have gotten preferential treatment.

So we will talk about them as we move on towards summer.

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Peek-olding meets the media today.

That's pretty good, right?

But what will we actually learn about this Ole Miss team?

That's coming up next.

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All right, so Pete Golding meets the media today

for the first time since.

I guess it was the post-game press conference

after the Miami lost back in January.

We're like January 8th or something like that.

There wasn't a signing day press conference,

which I get that there's not a need

for a February signing day press conference.

The only reason you go out and do those

is just to his brand recognition.

But you know, you're signing four players

in these spring transfer portal

or spring signing period.

Those aren't exactly dudes,

but I get it.

You can be in front of the media and have all that thing.

And with all of the state that I guess Debo

put with his tamper tantrum that he had,

I that might have played a role in it as well.

But this will be the first time

that Pete Golding has met the media.

I'm curious to see what he thinks

about this team moving forward.

He's a guy that kind of says what's on his mind.

Unlike what we had the last five years

where it sounds like he says something

but he actually didn't say anything.

So I'm curious to see how Pete Golding reacts

to this team moving forward.

We're getting ready to start putting pads on.

Contacts going to happen.

We're going to see players rise.

You're going to see players fall.

But the important thing whenever that happens

before the next time that we talk to Pete Golding

is the trenches.

Because you will finish your acclimation days

and be out there with the shoulder pad.

Who's the offensive tackle that we talked about earlier?

The carrier's current Tommy Kinsler, counterhauls,

that position.

How does they look with the defensive line?

How does Blake purchase look like?

The transfer portal additions that they got in.

Makai Borough,

Jahim Otis coming in, Luke Forelli,

Keaton Thomas, Taj Butler,

those are going to be major or mainstay type players.

Edwin Joseph,

who's playing free safety?

These are all questions that I am interested

in learning about.

I don't know that we're going to hear anything

like that from Pete Golding today.

Whenever he addresses because they block that stuff down

and we saw from the early part of spring practice,

there's a Sabin-like culture he's taking cues

from the Nick Sabin system for what he does.

And a lot of that is kind of quiet when dealing with the media.

So we'll see what happens.

I'm curious to find out exactly how it works out.

Anyway, thanks for tuning in today to the Lockdown on Miss Podcast.

We're going to continue to talk about Spring Ball,

college baseball, all week.

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Hotty-totty.

And remember,

the Oxford Two Stop is coming up April 19th through the 25th.

I will be in Oxford.

I think the 20th.

I will be at the velvet ditch for a meet and greet.

That's the first opportunity.

That night will be at the velvet ditch.

And we will do live shows as well around docs

for to try and make it worthwhile.

So check us out for that.

I'm looking forward to seeing everybody.

And think this could be an absolutely fantastic season.

Take care.

Hotty-totty, everyone.

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