OXFORD, Miss. — As dusk settled over Oxford last November, Pete Golding, the architect of Ole Miss’s defensive resurgence, walked off the field amid a stadium still buzzing from another signature stop.
Just months later, Golding faces a new kind of pressure of maintaining a defense that became the program’s backbone, even as it loses five NFL-bound stars who helped make “Landshark” more than just a slogan.
Golding, entering his third year as defensive coordinator, is not rattled by the turnover.
“What I’m most excited about is I don’t think we’re going to fall down from where we were from the front six standpoint,” he said during a recent campus interview. “We’ve got a really talented group. Ninety percent of that group was already in that room, so they know the expectations.”
The Rebels’ 2024 defense was no fluke. By most advanced metrics, they ranked among the nation’s elite, finishing with one of the best stop rates in college football, allowing opponents to score on just over a quarter of their drives.
Despite the loss of first-round talent like Walter Nolen and Princely Umanmielen, Golding’s track record at both Alabama and Ole Miss is built on depth and adaptability.
The 2025 unit will rely on returning anchors like linebacker TJ Dottery, who paced the team last season with 76 tackles. Golding calls Dottery the “green dot,” the on-field quarterback who “makes us tick.”
“We lost three inside guys through the draft,” he said. “We didn’t replace them with one portal guy because the last two seasons, from a recruiting standpoint, we’ve hit on those guys inside. All four of them are Mississippi kids. They’ve been here, they’ve been in the system. I’m really excited about the front six.”
This continuity is critical as Ole Miss retools.
Defensive linemen like Suntarine Perkins, Zxavian Harris, and Kam Franklin, all part of that “90 percent,” return with a year’s worth of experience in Golding’s 4-2-5 system, a scheme predicated on versatility, speed, and disruption.
Analysts point out that Golding’s approach isn’t about overwhelming blitzes, but “staying two high and allowing DBs to play the pass with split-field concepts,” which keeps opposing offenses guessing.
The program’s trust in in-state recruiting has paid off. The interior defensive line, built around Mississippi natives—, as become a point of pride and an example of Lane Kiffin’s and Golding’s long-term vision.
“It’s rare to see this kind of homegrown cohesion in the transfer portal era,” says SEC analyst Cole Cubelic. “But Ole Miss is proving you can still develop local talent and win big.”
Questions remain, of course. SEC quarterbacks will test the Rebels’ new-look front and retooled secondary.
Early in the season, Ole Miss faces Georgia State, but it’s showdowns against SEC West rivals that will reveal just how far Golding’s depth-first philosophy can take them.
The defensive line rotation now includes promising sophomores like William Echoles and Kamron Beavers, who flashed potential in limited snaps last fall.
The transfer portal hasn’t been ignored. Two new edge defenders, described by Golding as “elite,” were brought in to replace the pass rush lost to the NFL.
Their ability to generate negative plays and pressure quarterbacks will be under the microscope early, especially as the Rebels try to replicate last year’s disruptive front that finished among the top in sacks and tackles for loss.
Golding’s system doesn’t just rely on star power but demands communication and discipline.
“Everyone is on the same page, once we’re in it, we’re in it for the down. And then I think your kids can play the plays better because they know the why,” Golding said recently.
That attention to detail helped the Rebels finish in the national top 25 in interceptions as well, with the secondary making game-changing plays in key moments.
As the season approaches, expectations are high, but so is the sense of determination.
“Every year I think you’re going to have a new defense and offense to a certain degree,” Golding said. “So I think that’s helped us try to adapt.”
This adaptability was on display in 2024, when injuries forced young players into starting roles, and the defense didn’t miss a beat.
The national conversation has shifted. Ole Miss is no longer seen as a program that wins with offense alone.
Their defense is now a calling card, a reality that’s attracting blue-chip recruits and transfer talent alike.
“They have a really good foundation of what we’re going to ask them to do and why we’re going to ask them to do it,” Golding said. “We’ve added two elite edge players to it that’ll help to create negative yardage plays and pressure the quarterback.”
If there’s a through line in Golding’s approach, it’s his belief in the process.
“We’ve got to continue to develop the depth, continue to develop the young guys, but I like where we’re at,” he said during spring practice.
With a strong returning core and a handful of high-upside newcomers, the Rebels are poised to prove that last year’s defensive breakthrough wasn’t a one-off.
The defense will take its first steps toward answering the question that’s echoed across the SEC all offseason when the games start.
Can the Rebels maintain their defensive edge, even as the faces change? If Golding has his way, the answer will be written on the field … and on the scoreboard.
