Trinidad Chambliss is back. He’s the guy.
And Ole Miss coach Pete Golding doesn’t want anyone to over-think it.
Coming off a breakthrough 2025 season that landed him eighth in Heisman Trophy voting, Chambliss enters the 2026 campaign as the Rebels’ unquestioned starting quarterback.
His NCAA eligibility fight is essentially settled and he’s already established himself as one of the better signal-callers in the Southeastern Conference.
There isn’t a real quarterback competition at the top of the Ole Miss depth chart. Golding’s been clear about that.
“Trinidad’s our quarterback,” Golding said. “Don’t get it twisted.”
But in a sport where injuries can change everything overnight, the Rebs aren’t content to stop there.
A season nobody saw coming
It’s worth revisiting how Chambliss even got to this point. He opened the 2025 season as the team’s No. 2 quarterback.
That’s it. He wasn’t supposed to be the guy. Austin Simmons was.
Then Simmons went down with an injury just two games in and Chambliss stepped in and never looked back.
By the end of the year he’d thrown for 3,937 yards and 22 touchdowns while accounting for 4,464 total yards — the third-most in a single season in program history.
Nobody in that building predicted it.
“Last year at this time, nobody in here would have thought our number two going into the season was going to be the starter at the end of the year and have the year that he had,” Golding said. “So, you don’t know.”
Simmons has since transferred to Missouri, where he’s already been named the starter.
Chambliss did all the throwing at Ole Miss Pro Day, keeping his arm sharp while his backup competition continues to develop.
Golding said every player in that room is essentially competing against themselves each day rather than chasing a direct head-to-head battle.
The backup battle
Auburn transfer Deuce Knight is the heavy favorite to be Chambliss’s understudy heading into the fall.
Knight was Mississippi’s top prospect in the 2025 recruiting class, rated as the No. 25 player nationally and the No. 5 quarterback in the country. He arrived in Oxford carrying five-star billing and real dual-threat ability.
His lone college season at Auburn was brief but encouraging. He appeared in two games, completed 15 of 20 passes for 239 yards in a start against Mercer and finished his true freshman campaign with 259 passing yards and six combined touchdowns while also rushing for 178 yards and four scores on just 13 carries.
Knight’s only start came in a 62-17 win over Mercer on November 22 and he accounted for six total touchdowns in that game alone.
Howard’s Return Adds Experience
Walker Howard gives the Rebs something they haven’t always had behind their starter — a veteran who’s been through the Ole Miss system before.
Howard originally transferred to Ole Miss from LSU and spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons with the program before heading to Louisiana-Lafayette. He’s back now, and Golding thinks his presence helps the whole room.
Howard missed seven games last season at UL-L due to an injury but he still carries the kind of experience that’s hard to put a number on. He knows the offense.
More importantly, he knows how to prepare. He knows what it looks like when things go sideways and how to handle it.
“It’s really nice to have a guy that has been in the system come back,” Golding said. “Knowledge standpoint being one thing, but such a good dude and just showing you how to do it and how to prepare for a meeting and how to pay attention in a meeting and how to practice.”
Golding also credited Howard’s maturity and love for Oxford as factors that make him a genuine resource for the younger quarterbacks in the room.
“He loves Oxford. He loves Ole Miss. He’s really, really smart, so he helps those guys as well,” he said.
Filling out the room
Beyond Knight and Howard, redshirt sophomore AJ Maddox and 3-star freshman Rees Wise round out the quarterback room.
Maddox has been in the program and is developing within the system. Wise is a newcomer who’s just getting started.
Golding spoke at length about why roster depth — not just at quarterback but across the board — became a priority for him from a recruiting standpoint.
He’s seen what happens when a team’s second-string can’t keep pace with SEC competition late in the year.
Depth was always the goal
“That was my big concern from a recruiting standpoint: depth at a lot of positions,” Golding said. “I felt like over the past couple years since I’d been here there was a drastic difference between the first guy and the second one.”
With nine SEC games on the schedule and the potential for a postseason run, Ole Miss can’t afford to see that gap again.
Golding wants a backup who can actually win football games if called upon — not just manage a series or two.
“We talk about trying to play winning football,” he said. “If you make more plays for us than you do against us, you’re going to play. Obviously, that’s a unique position.
“There’s not a rotation like other spots and all those things, but you better have a guy that you can play winning football with on deck in case something does happen.”
The Rebs feel like they’ve built that kind of room now. Chambliss is the starter. Knight is the heir apparent. Howard is the veteran glue.
And Maddox and Wise are developing behind them.
“Really like the balance in there from an athletic standpoint and then obviously from an experience standpoint,” Golding said. “But, more importantly, the maturity of how to do it, how to lead and how to be a leader for this team.”
