The College Football Playoff is not supposed to be simple, and Ole Miss seems committed to proving that point before the ball even kicks off.
When the 6-seed Rebels meet 11-seed Tulane on Saturday, there will be plenty of new job titles and adjusted duties, all organized by Pete Golding as he steps into his first game as a head coach.
Most first games just don’t start in a playoff for a national title.
Golding’s promotion sparked immediate questions. Where would he coach from? Would he stay upstairs in the booth? Would he walk the sideline again like he did during his first season in Oxford?
And how would all this impact defensive coordinator Bryan Brown, who now juggles more responsibility in Golding’s new structure?
For several days the answer felt like a mystery box. Then Golding, in classic understated fashion, cleared it up.
“Yeah, I’ll be on the field,” Golding said Monday.
The new head coach noted this was familiar territory. His first year at Ole Miss, he coached from the sideline. His five years at Alabama? Also the sideline.
Compared to that, the booth was something he considered “the hardest thing to actually do,” mostly because, as he put it, nobody practices football in a box.
That part was delivered with enough dry humor to make even a veteran SEC assistant nod in agreement.
Golding said coaching upstairs removes you from your players, which is not ideal when you are now the guy steering an entire program into its first CFP appearance. So the sideline it is.
He still wants a reliable set of “eyes in the sky,” though. Those eyes will not belong to Brown.
Brown stays grounded while duties grow
While Golding shifts into the head coach role, Brown finds himself handling even more inside the defensive meeting room.
With Golding being pulled into wider responsibilities — a side effect of climbing the ladder — it made sense to delegate more of the daily defensive work to Brown.
And it turns out Brown also volunteered his preferences on game-day logistics.
“We had a meeting the other day about it and me and Pete kind of talked about him coming down,” Brown said Tuesday. “At the beginning he thought about it as an interim (coach), he may stay up. I was like, ‘No, brother. You got to come down. It’s your show now, right?’”
Brown said he will remain on the field, partly out of familiarity and partly because the current staff works well with its existing communication flow.
Keeping that continuity for the playoff run feels like the least complicated choice in a week already full of moving parts.
Next year? Brown hinted that the setup could always change, which is the kind of coaching-speak reserved for future headaches.
With both top defensive coaches declining to climb into the booth, the obvious question emerged: So who exactly is going up there?
Turnage, Shoop and analysts take command in the box
Ole Miss does, in fact, have a plan. The Rebels will place members of the defensive staff in the booth, including analysts Brandon Turnage and Jay Shoop.
Shoop, recently promoted to inside linebackers coach earlier this month, steps into a key role for Saturday.
Brown said the staff may add more experienced voices later, especially once additional veteran hires settle in.
That includes coaches with Division I — or “Power 4” — experience who can contribute meaningful box communication.
For now, the Rebels will lean on what they have, and Brown pointed out that the modern era provides something neither he nor Golding had early in their careers: iPads.
“It’s just so easy with the iPads, too. That helps,” Brown said with a level of relief familiar to anyone who lived through the paper-printout era.
Technology may not solve everything, but it does let the Rebels trust their sideline setup without feeling blind.
Rebels embrace CFP challenge with flexible structure
The postseason stage often forces programs to rethink their processes. Ole Miss did not wait long.
Golding’s decision to coach from the field, Brown’s expanded duties, and the analysts’ roles above create a structure that fits the moment.
It is not flashy, but it is functional, and the Rebels seem fine leaning on practicality instead of overthinking the biggest game of their season.
Saturday brings a matchup with Tulane, but it also brings Ole Miss’ first real look at how its reshaped coaching organization performs under playoff pressure.
Golding wanted clarity heading into the week, and he delivered it. Now his players get the next turn.
In a postseason filled with dramatic plotlines elsewhere, Ole Miss is content writing its own chapter with measured confidence and some strategic reshuffling.
It may not be the conventional blueprint, but for a program stepping into new territory, it fits just fine.
Key takeaways
- Pete Golding confirmed he will coach from the sideline for the CFP matchup with Tulane.
- Bryan Brown takes on expanded defensive duties while also staying on the field.
- Analysts Brandon Turnage and Jay Shoop will serve as the primary voices in the booth.
