Forty-five miles from Louisiana State University sits Hammond, Louisiana, where Pete Golding was born and bred and began his football career. He was ushered into Mississippi via former Delta State Head Football Coach Rick Rhoads who was actually recruiting a teammate but a trio of players showed up in Cleveland. Rhoads worked them out and took them all, finding scholarship money to throw on a bet that would pay dividends for the Statesmen and every other program that would commandeer the Golding Touch. The Ole Miss Rebels’ shiny new head football coach has always been an assistant or coordinator but each step in his career has prepared him to right the listing ship that former head coach Lane Kiffin left in his traumatic wake in leaving for LSU last Sunday. And it all started in Cleveland — by accident. Hammond High School’s center, Ryan Barker was the focus of the visit but Barker asked to bring along some teammates.
“I wouldn't say Pete was an afterthought, but we felt he was not the primary guy that we had coming up on that particular day,” Coach Rhoads said. “And of course, all three of those guys (Golding, quarterback Scott Eyster and Barker) were recruited and ended up being just great players for us.”
The connection grew as Rhoads hired Ron Roberts to be defensive coordinator (and who eventually succeeded him as head coach.)
“It's kind of funny. A couple of years after that, a guy that I had known from Tusculum, my son coached there, went to work as the head coach there. He's got high school coaching and I knew he was a great defensive coach. So, I hired him to come to Delta State. That was Ron Roberts. And, and of course he's molded Pete into a defensive coach. It's just funny how all those pieces kind of fit together. A guy from Hammond meets a guy from Alabama who meets a guy from California by way of Tuscaloosa, and as a result, is the head coach at Ole Miss.”
Coach Rhoads has no doubts that Golding is ready for the challenge that comes from moving from coordinator to head coach.
“As a player, he had plenty of natural ability. But I would say that Pete is one of the most focused individuals that I've ever been around. He really pours himself into the here and now, into what he's doing. He maximizes everything and that came across very, very, very early and very clear. We just fell in love with it. At the Division II level, you chop up scholarships. And I told him that day that I didn't know what we had left, but whatever we had left was his.”
That investment turned into a four-year starter at safety from 2002 to 2005 and Golding is still in the record books —third on the DSU career tackles list and fourth in career pass interceptions. After his playing days, Golding was a graduate assistant and eventually an assistant coach and worked his way up the college coaching ladder spending time at Tusculum, Delta State again, Southeastern Louisiana, Southern Miss, UTSA, Alabama and then Ole Miss. But in becoming a head coach, Rhoads had this to offer.
“There's really no training to be a head coach, except being a head coach. And it will be new. It will be different. It will challenge his time. But I sent him a little note the other day and I told him, ‘the thing to keep in mind is that there are a lot of times that being a head coach isn't a lot of fun. But in the end, it can be really about as rewarding a thing as anybody can possibly do,’” coach Rhoads said. “You have a chance to affect so many people in a positive way. But it's easy to forget that in the heat of the battle. And I also know that some guys try to cut corners. Pete's never been one of them. But, you know, the old saying, do what's right and then move ahead. That's a pretty good thing to go by. So that's what I shared with him. But I will tell you, Pete is as ready as you can be for this.”
Most coaches start their journey against some lower competition but Golding will be in the heat of the first ever 12-team National Championship battle the first time he puts on his head-coaching gear.
“It's a pretty tough gig for his maiden voyage. And, of course, he's got some staff issues he's going to have to work through and all that. It's not an enviable position in one regard, but on the other, it's a great challenge, and he loves things like that. He'll have them ready, and I think his players are very enthused to play for him. Pete's enthusiasm is contagious, I can tell you that,” Coach Rhoads said. “He's one of the most focused individuals I've ever been around, and I've got a feeling that they will be ready to play.”
