TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Unearthed at Ole Miss after an offseason filled with tales of betrayal, unkept promises and how college football’s ugly underbelly can tear at the fabric of an institution comes this surprise from the new coach there — Pete Golding:“I have no ill will toward Coach Kiffin,” Golding said Wednesday at SEC Media Days.Golding was the up-and-coming defensive coordinator who was asked to pick up the pieces when his old boss, Lane Kiffin, abruptly left for LSU just as the historically good Rebels were about to embark on their trip to the College Football Playoff last season. Partly thanks to the fact that the coach had two of the game’s most explosive players in quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy, Golding racked up two wins, and almost a third, in those playoffs. That made Mississippi’s decision to give him a five-year contract right after Kiffin’s departure look like a stroke of genius. It also gave Golding a spot at the podium in Tampa, where he opened up and entertained — and became an early favorite to “win” the 38th version of the SEC’s annual preseason football gabfest.
“It’s the ex, right? There’s always going to be the history,” the coach said. “Do you have an ex? Are you married? Well, if you do get married and you have an ex that your wife knows about, like, she doesn’t ever end; she’s never dead. “She’s always going to get brought up, and so that’s kind of where it is right now. That’s always going to be there a little bit, which is fun to a certain degree.”
