SEC Media Days are fast approaching, and if history tells us anything, something interesting will happen.
Maybe a coach gets served a subpoena. Maybe a coach argues with a reporter. Maybe a rival’s fight song plays as a coach walks to the podium.
There’s always something that makes the week feel a little different.
Most coaches have fun with their press conferences, but they don’t forget the golden rule: don’t give anything away.
Nobody wants to offer information that could turn into a competitive edge. A team without a clear starting quarterback isn’t naming one in July. Nobody is walking into a ballroom and unveiling new plays.
The goal is simple. Don’t help an opponent. Sometimes that leads to 20 minutes of coach‑speak and everyone wishing they had a stronger cup of coffee.
But imagine if each coach had to take a truth serum before walking to the podium.
Imagine reporters could ask anything within good taste and get the real answers, the ones coaches think but never say out loud. What would we want to ask then?
Here are the five questions we would want to ask Ole Miss coach Pete Golding under that alternative‑reality scenario.
What, if any, conversations did you have with Lane Kiffin the Saturday after the Egg Bowl?
Ole Miss fans don’t need a reminder what the weekend after the Egg Bowl was like. Two days of wondering if Lane Kiffin would leave Ole Miss for LSU before the CFP. Poor Marty Smith lived at the Manning Center for two days waiting for that answer.
Plenty of stories and rumors have come out about those days in Oxford, but it’d be nice to know what actually happened.
Did someone actually tell Lane Kiffin to go watch the Iron Bowl at home because it wasn’t his office anymore? And was that someone Golding himself?
If you had a game tomorrow, who would start at left and right tackle?
The biggest question mark, on the field, for Ole Miss is at the two offensive tackle spots. The Rebels have to replace last year’s starters at the position and didn’t bring in a clear and obvious contender to start.
It’d be interesting to know where that competition truly stands roughly two months before the season actually starts.
How much of Dabo Swinney’s hour-long press conference was true?
Specifically, we’d want to know if Golding really sent linebacker Luke Ferrelli a photo of a million dollar check. But the Clemson head coach laid out a very detailed timeline of events about how Ferrelli came to Clemson from Cal and a week later reentered the transfer portal and signed with Ole Miss.
How much of that actually happened? All of it? Some of it?
It’s understandable why Golding wouldn’t want to answer this question, but it’d make for great content.
What upcoming opponent worries you the most?
Some version of this question usually gets asked in the preseason and we almost always get a coach-speak, “every opponent is a tough one” type of answer.
Wouldn’t it be nice to hear a true, direct answer? Is it LSU because of Kiffin? Is it Georgia or Texas because of their loaded rosters? Is it Mississippi State because of the rivalry? Is it Louisville because it’s the first game of the season?
There’s no wrong answer here, but coaches usually don’t single out one opponent.
What’s your favorite memory of Po’ Monkeys (or The Pickled Okra)?
A fun one to close it out.
Every college town has that one spot where the stories never end. At Delta State, Po’ Monkey’s and The Pickled Okra were those places. Anyone who spent time there has a memory worth sharing, including this writer.
Hearing Golding’s would be a perfect way to end this hypothetical truth‑serum session.
