The Josh Innes Show - Ole Miss Has Finally Lost Part 1: Tell Me About That Pete Golding Defense

Episode Date: January 9, 2026

I just hit record and ranted for about 45 minutes about Ole Miss, LSU and college football as a whole. I broke it down to 3 parts. In part one, we look at last nights game. I find it hysterical that people spent a week talking about how Ole Miss didn't need Lane Kiffin. They love Pete Golding... Then what happened? Pete Golding's defense got smoked in the 4th quarter. The best part? The Ole Miss offense, which was amazing in the 4th, was led by a coach who will be at LSU next year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, everybody. Welcome in, all up in this podcast. Hello. We got a blessing last night, a tremendous blessing that Ole Miss can now go back into the depths of the hell that they normally reside and get their fucking shine box. Ole Miss is the definition of go and get your shine box, right? Like, you had your little moment here. It's cute, all that, and now go and get your shine box. That's how I view Ole Miss. You had a moment. You had your coach. coach built a little program. You want to talk about getting lucky? You had a quarterback from a junior college, wherever the Hill Chambliss was from some small Division III college. He ends up having to play because of injury. It's a perfect storm. Things work out well. You get in. You get to face two

lane in the first round, so you want to playoff game. You upset Georgia cool. Then you lose to Miami, and your defense gives up 200 yards in the fourth quarter of a must-have-it game with your new beloved head coach that everybody was blowing all week long. This this great guy that knew all the right things to say and everything. And then what ends up happening? The side of the ball that he coaches got torched. Smoked in the fourth quarter, including the last drive of the game. Smoked.

Back-to-back 75-yard drives. Smoked. Like, I don't want to rip on Pete Golding. Good for Pete Gold. Like, I don't dislike the guy. Seems like a cool enough guy. Kind of like his vibe. Got that, you know, ne'er-do-well golf pro with the local muni.

got a five handicapped guy or whatever. He gives off that kind of vibe. Looks like he can knock a few back. Looks like he's always got a dip in type of guy. We're an advisory. He's got a vibe. I like the guy. But you spent all week talking about the piece of shit that Lane Kiffin is and all

these dipshit Ole Miss people, they wanted to tell you. They wanted to tell you that, oh, Lane Kiff had nothing to do with Ole Miss's success, and it's all Charlie Wise, it's all Pete Golding, and they can win with that lane. Then you read stories from USA Today about how Lane just got lucky and kind of gumped his way into all this shit. And did he really help them become great or did Ole Miss make him great? And Pete Golding's figured it out. And Pete Golding says all the right shit. And Pete Golding is our guy and blah, blah, blah.

Then you get into the game. And your guy calling the plays on his side of the ball 200 yards in the fourth quarter. Including game-winning drive led by. Carson Beck converting every third down he had to. You let Carson Beck march down the field against you and beat you. Offensive side of the ball did well. Hold on. Let me play a few commercials and we'll continue.

Look, fourth quarter, offensive side of the ball was amazing. Fun fact about the offensive side of the ball. The guy coaching it, he coaches at LSU now. So the guy responsible. Now, if you want to say Lane's not responsible for the offense, fine. I mean, it's his eye. I mean, look, the idea that we want to dismiss Lane and say This guy has no insight on anything that's completely bogus and bullshit, so we're not going to do that.

He's obviously a smart guy, very bright offensive guy. We get that he's a very bright offensive guy. He's not stupid. But the guy that was calling the plays for the offense for Ole Miss during the college football playoff, that guy is going to be sitting in the press box calling the plays for Louisiana State University. Ha! You know who's calling the plays for you? You know, the guy that's running your football team now?

Huh? the guy whose defense gave up 200 yards to Carson Beck in the biggest game in the history. The biggest game in the history of Ole Miss football. The guy that called the defense in that game that gave up almost 500 yards to Miami, that gave up 200 of those yards in the fourth quarter that allowed every big third down to be converted on the last drive, the defense that committed a couple of big penalties that extended drives, but also gave up big play after big play and let Carson Beck cut them. up, as Scott Hall would say.

So congratulations. And I don't want to shit on Pete Golding. Like Pete Golding seems like a likable guy, an affable enough guy. I don't think he's horrible at his job. He's obviously a solid defensive coordinator, so I'm not shitting on him. My shitting on Pete Golding is a way to go about shitting on the Ole Miss people who spent all week telling you that Lane Kiffin doesn't matter. Ole Miss is a powerhouse. We're here to stay.

We got Golding. He tells us all the shit we want to hear. And blah, blah, blah. Then you know what happens? The guy that's leaving is the guy who was responsible for the side of the ball that damn near couldn't be stopped in the fourth quarter and probably had a pass interference committed, not probably did have a pass interference committed against them

in the end zone that should have set up a situation for one more play. Trinidad Chambliss, that offense could not be stopped in the fourth quarter. You know who could be stopped in the fourth quarter? or actually neither side could be stopped in the fourth quarter. But you know who didn't get the stops? The defense led by Pete Golding, who is your head coach and your guy calling the defense. And I'm not trying to shit on him.

I am shitting on the Ole Miss people. Because you spent all week saying all the shit you said. And I'm reading that USA Today story from yesterday about how really Ole Miss made Lane Kiffin and Lane Kiffin didn't really do anything. And Pete Golding, the blow jobs that Ole Miss continues to get. You want to know how you know that Ole Miss isn't a relevant program? After they lose and their defense, which is led by their new head coach,

gives up 200 yards in the fourth quarter and loses to Carson Beck in the biggest game in franchise's history, no one's criticizing them. You know why? Because you're viewed as a charity. You're viewed as a one-off. Just like if Indiana goes out and loses tonight, let's say Fernando Mendoza goes out, they lose a game similar to this, 31, 27, and they lose. No one will be critical of Indiana.

Why? Because you're new money. You don't have any history. No one views you as anything important. You're just cute. Oregon loses, they get shit on. Miami may have gotten shit on, although Miami has no recent history of success, really. They haven't won one of these things in a quarter century.

But, like, when Ohio State loses, When Ohio State loses, they get shit on. Why? Because Ohio State's a legit power, and they're in this thing every year, and they have expectations of championships every year. If Ole Miss loses, you know what they look at? They say, oh, that was cute. Bless their hearts. Ole Miss lost. Good effort, though.

The number of stories I'm reading about how, like, epic this run was for Ole Miss. At the end of the day, Lane Kiffin wasn't there. Cool. You know who was there? The guy that calls the plays for the offense for Ole Miss. The players were still there. It wasn't shocking that they were able to win games without Lane Kiffin. It's not necessarily the on-field stuff that's going to make or break programs.

But that's the way they made it sound for the last three weeks is that it's all the on-field, on-field, on-field. You know why you were able to be successful on-field if you're Ole Miss? Because of the guy who built the whole thing off the field. The guy that went and got the players that ended up on the field. The guy who installed the system that you saw on the field. the guy who created the quote unquote culture that eventually led to what was on the field. The idea that you couldn't have won those games.

Oh, it just shows that Kiffin doesn't really matter, does it? You're right. Coordinators matter. That's why all the coordinators around the NFL get the jobs. That's why Mike McDaniel is going to be a highly sought-after commodity in the NFL. Why? Because coordinators matter. Now, some guys are head coaches called their own shit, Andy Reid and Ben Johnson.

I like, I get that. But there are going to be some places like in Detroit where Dan Campbell is. And they might say, you know, we want a guy to come in here and run this shit. And that could be Mike McDaniel. Coordinators matter. But the last three weeks has all been about how Lane Kiffin is a giant piece of shit. And he does not matter to Ole Miss. They didn't need him.

What was the narrative for the last two weeks? Oh, they beat Tulane. They didn't need Lane Kiffin. Oh, they beat Georgia. Lane Kiffin wouldn't have beaten Georgia because Lane Kiffin would have found a way to lose it. Because Lane Kiffin would have made it about Lane Kiffin. Fun fact, you found a way to lose it without him. And he gave up 200 yards of offense, including one four-play 75-yard drive, followed by like a 15-play 75-yard drive with multiple third-down conversions with the game on the line and your big-time big balls defense with this guy you're in love with, they didn't get the stops.

And if anybody had any guts, they'd rip them, but they won't. And the reason why they're not going to rip them is because Ole Miss is a charity case. Ole Miss is cute. That's who Ole Miss is. The reason why no one's crapping on the fact they gave up 200 yards is because no one gives a shit. Because you're Ole Miss. You're a charity case. You're a nice story.

You're a bless their hearts, their coach left them. We're all rooting for them now. You want to know how I know your team is worthless when someone throws the America's team thing on them? When everybody's rooting for you, that means you're not the villain. And when you're not the villain, you're just there. You know who's going to be the villain? Lane Kiffin. Ain't no one outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Covington, Louisiana, Hammond, Louisiana,

Lake Charles, Louisiana, Shreveport, Louisiana. Ain't nobody going to be rooting for Lane Kiffin outside of the boot. So when you're the team that everyone's rooting for, that means you're harmless and non-threatening, and no one really cares. That's why everybody's rooting for Indiana because it's cute and they're cute. Do you know the reason why people didn't root for Pavia? Because Pavia was an asshole. He was the villain.

Sometimes you've got to be the bad guy. Razor Ramon, the bad guy. Scott Hall, the bad guy. And what you got out of Ole Miss and the reason why everybody rooted for you is because it didn't matter if you won or lost. You already won in the eyes of people because you've somehow spited laying Kiffin by winning a game or two without him. So congrats.

Good for you. But do it again. you have no history. You now have a new head coach who coaches defense that gave up, what was that number again? 200 yards of offense in the fourth quarter in the biggest game in program history. Congrats. You did it. Now go do it again.

He didn't even win the whole thing. You didn't even make it to the championship. You made it to the semifinals. But like you go to USA today and what a magical ride from Ole Miss. Why? They spent the most money. Like, allow me to understand what about Ole Miss making this run was magical other than the fact that their coach left and there was a bunch of turmoil around that.

At the end of the day, the players that won 11 games in the regular season were still the same fucking players. The players that they spent Buku de Nero on were still the same players. So explain to me why, like this isn't one of those things where like in the college basketball tournament like, you know, Illinois, Chicago or something like that goes on a miracle run or like before Butler became more of a power and ended up in the big Easter, wherever the hell they are now, back when Butler was just. just like Missouri Valley, Ohio Valley, whatever, the Horizon, I think the Horizon League.

Back when Butler was just in the Horizon League and like, oh, there's a bunch of white kids from Butler and they made a run to the national championship game and Gordon Hayward almost banked in a three to win the thing. Before Butler became Butler, that was a story. That's a miracle run. That's a, wow, you're facing the halves versus the have-nots. There are no have-nots. So there's no such thing as miraculous runs or amazing stories unless Tulane would be in this situation.

Or James Madison would have been in this situation. That would have been something. Ole Miss spent tons of money in the portal to bring in tons of talented guys to get themselves into situations like this. The college football playoff will never lend itself to these kind of runs that they want to claim Ole Miss was on. These kind of runs that are miracle runs, these Cinderella runs. Ole Miss beating Georgia team they were in the game in the fourth quarter earlier this year. Them beating Tulane and beating Georgia is not a miracle run. There's no miracle.

But you're trying to spin it that way because you hate Lane Kiffin and everything is anti-Lane Kiffin. And this is not me being pro-Lane Kiffin. This is me looking at it from the standpoint of everybody else seems to hate the guy. Therefore, they take things like a team that spent a billion dollars in the portal and plays in the SEC winning two fucking playoff games and we turn this into Butler making it to the national championship and basketball. There are no have-nots. When you are in the SEC, there may be better programs, they may be better recruited programs,

but like there are no haves and have-nots anymore. Everybody can be a half. Every school, Indiana prove that. Every school can find somebody with money or the right coach, and the right coach can get the people to spend the money, and you can win a ton of games. So there are no Cinderella. This will never be a tournament that will lend itself to that. You can add 20 teams, 30 teams it doesn't matter.

There won't be Cinderella runs. It is not built that way. But the idea was, well, we're going to sell this amazing Ole Miss run. Let me see what the headline actually was.