Ole Miss fans has lived with this LSU game for nine months.
They’ve talked about it, circled it, replayed it in their heads and argued about it on message boards since the moment Lane Kiffin packed up and headed to Baton Rouge.
It’s been the backdrop to every offseason conversation, every roster move, every fall‑camp update. It’s the game everyone has thought about multiple times a week.
Except maybe Pete Golding.
Golding hasn’t had the luxury of fixating on one Saturday. He’s had a roster to build, a staff to organize, a program to steady and a season to manage. But this week is different. This week, the enormity of No. 7 LSU coming to Oxford is unavoidable.
He admitted as much when asked how often the LSU game has come up since he became head coach.
“I think everybody has looked forward to this opportunity,” Golding said. “Talking to anybody else, I can’t say that I’ve naturally thought about it since Day 1. I really haven’t. I’ve thought about a lot of other stuff that we need to do well. But it has always been there from everybody else’s perspective, a little bit of the ex deal and the ‘who’s better’ piece of it.”
Golding didn’t pretend the storyline isn’t real. He didn’t pretend there are a lot of emotions around this game. But he also didn’t let the narrative overshadow the football.
“To me, regardless of where I’ve been, when you play LSU they’re normally a Top 10 team at this time of year and they have really good players,” he said. “If you don’t play really well, you aren’t going to win the football game.”
That’s the part he keeps coming back to. The competition. The challenge. The respect.
“I love going against guys I’ve worked with and have relationships with,” Golding said. “It’s the competitive part, no different than you and your buddies going to play golf. You like competing against each other, trying to be at your best, and I have a lot of respect for those guys over there. They do a really good job. I’m looking forward to the competition piece of it.”
There’s also the personal layer. Golding has spent a decade in the SEC. He’s coached against LSU from multiple sidelines. He’s recruited Louisiana. He knows the Magnolia Bowl. He knows the stakes.
“Obviously, there’s a personal relationship there,” he said. “I’ve been in this league for 10 years, and that LSU game, regardless of where I’ve been, has always been a big game. Then here, obviously, you have the Magnolia Bowl and everything else.”
He’s coached and recruited many of LSU’s current players. He’s close with defensive coordinator Blake Baker. The familiarity runs deep.
“I’ve always recruited the state of Louisiana, so I have personal relationships with a lot of the players as well,” Golding said. “A lot of those guys, especially on the defensive side of the ball, we recruited either out of high school or the portal. I have a lot of respect for Blake. He and I are good buddies as well.”
But he keeps grounding it in the same place: it’s a big game because LSU is a big game. It’s a Top 10 matchup. It’s an SEC Saturday. It’s a chance to measure yourself.
“At the end of the day, it’s an SEC game and a Top 10 matchup,” Golding said. “I want us to be at our best, prepare a really good plan and hold these guys accountable this week to put a really good product on tape. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do that.”
And then there’s Kiffin. The storyline that has hovered over Oxford since December. Golding didn’t run from that either.
“From a friendship standpoint, I developed a really good relationship with him over three‑and‑a‑half years,” Golding said. “From a football and professional standpoint, we don’t bounce ideas off each other or anything like we used to. But, yeah, I’ll definitely receive a text from him or text him or call about other stuff that goes on and things like that. We’re definitely still friends.”
He also knows exactly what LSU gained when it added former Ole Miss players to its roster. He’s watched them. He’s evaluated them. He’s prepared for them.
“Watkins is a huge part of their offense,” Golding said. “He very rarely comes off the field. They use him in multiple different ways, use him in the backfield and in different sets to create matchups, use him in the rocket sweep and quarterback power game, and still move him around in the passing game and take shots.”
“We know what type of athlete he is and what he can do with the ball in space, so we’re definitely going to have to know where No. 6 is,” he said. “A lot of things go through him as part of that package.”
He didn’t stop there.
“We know what type of pass rusher P‑Will is,” Golding said. “We know what type of football player T.J. is, his leadership and football intelligence. I’m not surprised by anything I read about them or see in their stats. There’s a reason they started for us.”
Golding isn’t overwhelmed by the moment. He isn’t consumed by the storyline. He isn’t pretending the emotions don’t exist. He’s managing it the way he manages everything else: by focusing on the work.
He’s spent nine months building a program. This week, he gets the game everyone else has been waiting for.
And he’s ready for it.
