Lane Kiffin left Oxford, tried to take some of Ole Miss’s best players with him on the way out and it did not work.
Not only did the Rebels hold their core together, they upgraded in multiple spots.
The man now running the show, Pete Golding, inherited what looked from the outside like a messy situation and through spring practice the picture coming into focus is quietly encouraging.
This is not a program in retreat. This is a program that just found out what it is made of.
According to Ben Garrett at OM Spirit, who has been tracking the roster situation closely through spring practice, the 22 players who transferred out following Ole Miss’s historic 13-win season were, in most cases, not players the program was desperate to keep.
Being generous, only four of those departures were genuine losses. Sack leader Princewill Umanmielen was the most significant. Wide receiver
Cayden Lee was another name, though the staff did not fight particularly hard to retain him — which tells you something about how they assessed the situation going forward.
The door swung open. Most of what walked out was replaceable. Some of it was already being replaced before it left.
Golding Walked into Stronger Hand Than Advertised
The framing of this offseason has been tilted toward chaos with 22 transfers, coaching transition, a program in flux.
That framing does not hold up when you look at the details.
The linebacker room, for example, is arguably better than it was. Leading tackler TJ Dottery is gone, but Cal transfer Luke Ferrelli (after a Clemson detour) and Baylor’s Keaton Thomas have come in to fill that void and by most evaluations those two represent an upgrade over what the Rebels had.
That is not a program treading water. That is a program adding real talent to a position group that was already producing at a high level.
Golding inherited a roster with genuine depth, a staff that retained key voices players already trusted and a program culture strong enough to resist a coordinated effort by rival programs to pull it apart.
LSU came after Ole Miss players.
Kiffin reportedly pursued Deuce Alexander, Lucas Carneiro, Oscar Bird, Caleb Cunningham and others, including targets in the high school recruiting class.
None of it worked.
Spring practice interviews have made clear that tampering was happening on a wide scale this offseason.
The players said so themselves. Phones were ringing. Pitches were being made.
The pressure on these young men to follow the money or follow the familiar faces was real. And yet here they are, still in Oxford, still practicing in red and blue.
That does not happen without trust in the people running the building now.
Baker Is Name Players Keep Bringing Up
One of the quieter stories of this Ole Miss offseason is just how much continuity the program maintained on the coaching staff under Golding.
That continuity is paying dividends in ways that show up in player decisions, not just depth charts.
Offensive coordinator John David Baker has made a visible impression on the players who stayed.
When Deuce Alexander talked about why he chose to remain in Oxford, Baker’s name came up without prompting. That is meaningful.
When a player who had every reason and every financial opportunity to leave starts talking about how much he loves the way his position coach talks and coaches, something real is happening in that program.
“Coach Golding is a great guy. I mess with him. I mess with his energy and everything he does,” Alexander said. “Playing with John David Baker, the way he talks and the way he coaches, I just love it. So there was no point in leaving.”
Read that again. A player being pursued by other programs — programs with resources, with NIL money, with coaching familiarity — said there was no point in leaving because of the relationships he has built with Golding and Baker.
That is the kind of staff retention that doesn’t show up on a depth chart but absolutely shows up on the scoreboard in October.
The Players Who Chose Ole Miss When They Did Not Have To
Kewan Lacy turned down more money elsewhere. In the current NIL climate, that sentence carries real weight.
Nobody turns down guaranteed money without a reason. Lacy had a reason — multiple reasons, apparently — and they were all in Oxford.
Trinidad Chambliss could have gone anywhere. He re-signed with the Rebels.
And then there is Alexander himself, the team’s new number one wide receiver, who was one of the most aggressively recruited players in this entire offseason.
He had options. Programs were calling.
The tampering players have acknowledged openly during spring interviews was real and targeted. And after all of it, Alexander’s answer was clear.
“At the end of the day, I just wanted to leave my mark and leave my legacy at Ole Miss,” Alexander said. “When it came down to making my decision, it was like, there was no point in leaving.
“Why leave here? I’ve got everything I need here, everything I want. The coaches love me. The new coaches came in, even during the playoffs and they were still showing me love. They were trying to stay out of the way, but they still showed me how much they valued me.”
That is a player who feels seen. That is a player who feels valued. Those guys play hard.
What Golding Has Built in Year One Before It Even Starts
Pete Golding did not walk into a clean situation.
Kiffin’s departure left loose ends, roster questions and a program that needed someone to step in and immediately establish that Ole Miss was not going anywhere.
The outside noise suggested instability. The actual roster suggests something different entirely.
The Rebels came out of the transfer portal better than they went in. The players who had the most to offer stayed.
The staff retained the coaches those players already trusted. The linebacker corps upgraded. The wide receiver room kept its most important piece and handed him the number one role.
The early returns on Golding’s ability to hold this thing together and build on it are better than the narrative around this offseason would suggest.
Kiffin tried to leave a crater. Golding walked in, looked around and got to work.
The players noticed.
Don’t be really shocked if spring practice is showing the ones being recruited to come here next are, too.
