By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
You could say head football coach Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss had a nasty divorce last winter.
Kiffin took most of his older children – his offensive coaching staff – with him to his new job – or spouse – at LSU. He wanted to visit with the younger kids – the players – and travel back and forth between the two coaching households through the College Football Playoffs. But Ole Miss said no. Kiffin also wanted to take several of the kids on the team – the players – to LSU, too, via the transfer portal, but ended up with only four in January.
The two parties agreed to allow Kiffin’s older children to start working at LSU in December as coaches while also coaching Ole Miss through the playoffs and going back and forth.
Meanwhile, Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding convinced athletic director Keith Carter that he should be Ole Miss’ new spouse, as in new football coach, and Carter accepted his promotion proposal.
RANKING ALL SEC HEAD FOOTBALL COACHES, 1-16
Golding soon began making fun of Kiffin’s hot yoga habits, and Kiffin later said that he tried to get Golding into hot yoga to improve his physique, which has improved of late. Golding and Ole Miss also accused Kiffin of tampering with the Ole Miss kids to get them to LSU and threatened legal action.
Never mind that Clemson coach Dabo Swinney accused Golding of tampering with a Clemson player who suddenly transferred to Ole Miss.
On Wednesday, at the SEC Media Days in Tampa, Golding seemed to be getting along with his ex-spouse Kiffin, although the SEC office made sure the two didn’t cross paths at the Tampa Marriott Water Street as Kiffin does not take the stage until Thursday.
Golding was asked if the Kiffin-Golding storyline “will be put to bed, or will it still follow you throughout the remainder of the season” after the LSU-Ole Miss game on Sept. 19 in Oxford passes.
“I think that’s up to y’all,” Golding said. “No, there’s always going to be history. It’s the ex, right? Like, there’s always going to be the history. Like, do you have an ex? Are you married?”
The answer was no.
“Ok, all right,” said Golding, who has been married for more than 10 years with three children to attorney Carolyn Golding, a Cleveland, Mississippi, native and Ole Miss law school graduate. “Well, if you do get married, and you have an ex that your wife knows about, like she doesn’t ever end. Like, she’s always going to get brought up, so that’s kind of like where it is right now (with Kiffin). That’s always going to be there a little bit, which is fun to a certain degree.”
Ole Miss coach Pete Golding gets applause after he speaks at SEC Media Days!
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) July 22, 2026
“Nobody else has gotten any sort of applause (after speaking). Heavy contingent of Mississippi media here.”
– Cole Cubelic on SEC Nation.
Will more fans be ejected? Fan named Legend previously tossed.
Golding, 42, is a native of Hammond, but played at Delta State in Cleveland, where he met his wife. He left Ole Miss partly to be closer to his wife’s family.
“I did not know coach Kiffin prior to taking the Ole Miss job,” Golding said. “Everybody assumes Alabama, Alabama. I wasn’t at Alabama (2018-22) when coach Kiffin was (2014-16). I didn’t come to Ole Miss because of coach Kiffin. I came to Ole Miss to be at Ole Miss to raise three kids.”
Golding was also asked what his relationship with Kiffin is right now.
“Look, I get this everywhere we go,” Golding said. “We’re on our caravan tour right now with Ole Miss, so we go every Tuesday and Thursday and take a couple players and go around the country. We go Q and A with everybody, so everybody is like, ‘Tell me how you really feel about him.’ Lane and I are good. Our relationship really grew in those three and a half years (at Ole Miss), and and he did a lot for me. And I was very, very appreciative of how he treated me and my family. I learned a lot from him.”
The three seasons Golding was under Kiffin at Ole Miss from 2023-25, the Rebels went 11-2 and 6-2 in the SEC, 10-3 and 5-3 and 11-1 and 7-1. Golding then went 2-1 in the College Football Playoff last season. His first Ole Miss defense finished 68th in the nation at 382.2 yards allowed a game in 2023 before a No. 14 finish in 2024 with 311.2 yards given up a game and 48th last season with 348 allowed.
“I have no ill will towards coach Kiffin,” Golding said. “He texts me on a regular basis, and there are certain things we’ll talk about, and certain things we don’t talk about. He’s very competitive just like I’m very competitive. So, obviously a lot of this went a different direction. Now, he has a new job with new responsibilities, and he’s going to be super competitive to be the best he can at that job, which is his job.”
Golding said he keeps the separation compartmentalized.
“I can separate the two. Some people can’t,” he said. “I tell a lot of these people, and I probably shouldn’t say this. But but I don’t care, all right? Like I told an Ole Miss group the other day. In 2021, if you said, ‘Look into 2025, and you’re about to be 11-1 and go to the playoffs, would you take it, if your coach was leaving?’ Hell yeah. You would. Everybody won from it. It’s okay. Keith made a great hire (of Kiffin). He did a great job. Every place isn’t for everybody.”
Kiffin should have stayed at Ole Miss, Golding told him.
“Throughout the process, I’ll be the first one to tell you, I told him I would think he was dumb if he was to leave,” he said. “I wanted him to stay. It was a selfish decision by me, because I loved being the DC where I was at. He decided what was better for him and his family, and that’s for him to decide. No ill will towards him at all. Wish him the best of luck. We play him like every other SEC team, and we are going to both show up and spot the ball and play.”
Golding said he and Kiffin still communicate.
“I talk to him on a regular basis,” he said. “No ill will at all and really appreciative of how he treated me and my family, and then this created an unbelievable opportunity for me as well on top that I really wasn’t looking for, but so appreciative to have.”
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