It hasn’t taken new offensive coordinator John David Baker long to get settled in running Ole Miss’ offense.
There were some familiar faces when he get back to town. He sat down with reporters Monday for his only scheduled press conference of the preseason.
With the season opener less than four weeks away, Baker gave a look where his offense stands and what led him back to Oxford in the first place.
But there’s still this little nagging question that keeps popping in my mind.
It’s fair to wonder how Baker felt landing back with a program that came within reach of a national championship run.
He didn’t step into a rebuild. He stepped into stability, and that’s not something every new coordinator gets to say.
Most guys walking into a new coordinator job spend the first few months just trying to figure out who’s who. Baker skipped that part entirely.
Getting settled in with Golding
Baker isn’t new to Oxford and he isn’t new to working alongside head coach Pete Golding either.
The two crossed paths back in 2023, when Golding was Ole Miss’s defensive coordinator and Baker held the co-offensive coordinator title. Now their roles have changed Golding is running the program and Baker is back in the office he once occupied.
Seven months into that new dynamic, Baker didn’t hedge on what he thinks of his new boss.
“What I thought. He’s a dude, man,” Baker said.
That’s about as blunt a compliment as a coordinator can give a head coach, and Baker didn’t stop there.
“He’s ultra consistent and I think the thing that I learned the most over the stretch of the playoffs was his ability to compartmentalize things,” Baker said. “I think about when I got here in December. Just everything that was going on inside the building, outside the building, playoffs, transfer portal, retaining players and oh by the way, you’re having to game plan and call a defense.”
That’s not a normal December for anybody. Most people would’ve been running around with their hair on fire. Golding apparently wasn’t.
“All those things and his ability to handle all that and be the same dude,” Baker said. “That’s not easy to do and there’s not a lot of people in the country that can do that. Pete’s done that from the time that I got back and so it confirmed what I thought.”
That kind of praise from a coordinator who’s worked under plenty of head coaches isn’t something to walk past.
Steadiness at the top is what lets a new coordinator install his own system without blowing up what already worked, and Baker sounds like a guy who trusts the ground he’s standing on.
Judge and Chambliss made the return easy
Part of what made Baker’s return so smooth wasn’t Golding at all. It was the bond already built between quarterbacks coach Joe Judge and quarterback Trinidad Chambliss.
Baker walked into a room where that relationship was already strong and leaned on it to catch up fast.
“It was, obviously, huge,” Baker said. “I know Trinidad, the most important piece to be back, but obviously coach Judge. Their relationship is huge but also it was a great bridge for me to kind of figure out what I’d missed the last two years.”
Two years away is a long time in college football. Rosters turn over. Systems change. Wrinkles get added every offseason, and Baker admitted he had some catching up to do.
“We went somewhere else for a couple years and we did different things, added new wrinkles just like they did here,” Baker said. “So it was great for me to be around during the playoffs and kind of learn some of it.”
This is the part that stands out most. Baker didn’t just accept what was already installed.
He studied it during the playoff run itself, which tells you he wasn’t interested in tearing things down just to put his own stamp on it.
“But also the last few months just understanding different things they’ve added that Trinidad likes,” Baker said. “That’s the most important thing. If Trinidad likes it then I like it, because it’s got a great chance to work.”
That’s a coordinator letting his quarterback drive the bus, and honestly, that’s the smart move when your quarterback already has chemistry with half the offense.
Baker being away from Ole Miss for a couple of seasons could’ve meant a rocky re-introduction. Instead he had a shortcut built right in.
Lacy won’t carry the load alone
Running back Kewan Lacy carried the Rebels offense through most of 2025.
He piled up 306 carries, 1,567 rushing yards and 24 touchdowns before shoulder surgery followed a hard-fought Fiesta Bowl.
Baker made clear that workload isn’t happening again this fall, and he didn’t sound like he was open to negotiating on it.
“I don’t want him to carry the ball that much,” Baker said.
Simple as that. But Baker was careful to draw a line between carries and touches, because those aren’t the same thing in his offense.
“Now, to me, the difference is carries and touches,” Baker said. “Like is he going to get the same amount of touches? Yes. But in different ways.”
The reasoning behind that comes from what already happened to Lacy’s body once.
“Because to me, running the ball that many times in between the tackles, like you’re going to break and he did,” Baker said. “He had to have shoulder surgery in the offseason. Me deal is he can’t do that again. That’s hard. The shelf life for running back is short as it is.”
That’s a coordinator being honest about the physical cost of a workhorse season, and it’s a fair point.
A back who takes 300-plus hits in a season is a back who’s on borrowed time no matter how tough he is.
Baker also revealed this wasn’t a decision made in fall camp. It was a pitch he made months ago to keep Lacy in the fold.
“That was my sell to them in December as far as the retainment piece of, ‘Hey man, you’re not going to have the same amount of carries but you’re going to have the same amount of touches and you’re going to touch the ball in different ways,'” Baker said.
That’s a smart retention pitch and it clearly worked since Lacy is still a Rebel.
With a deeper running back room this fall Baker has the pieces to spread out the workload while still getting Lacy the ball just as often through screens, motion and whatever else he’s cooking up.
It’s a pretty good bet the wrinkles at running back won’t be the only one.
Key takeaways
- Baker leaned on the Joe Judge-Trinidad Chambliss bond to relearn Ole Miss’s offense fast
- Kewan Lacy’s touches should stay steady but his carry count is dropping after shoulder surgery
- Baker calls Pete Golding “ultra consistent” after watching him juggle a chaotic December
