Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding gets real with media following heartbreaking College Football Playoff loss to Miami Hurricanes
Pete Golding opened up and shared exactly what he’ll remember about this Ole Miss Rebels team and quarterback Trinidad Chambliss.
It’s almost impossible to capture the raw emotion felt following a heartbreaking playoff loss, but Pete Golding certainly did his best.
When asked about what he would remember about this special Ole Miss Rebels team, their season, and players like quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, Golding opened up and got real with media after the team’s 31-27 College Football Playoff loss to the Miami Hurricanes on Thursday.
Pete Golding will cherish many memories from this Ole Miss Rebels team
It would be easy to spend the entire press conference breaking down every failure, second-guessing every decision, and beating up a new coaching staff following a disappointing College Football Playoff loss, but that’s not how most of Golding’s time with media went.
Yes, there were comments and questions on the third-down struggles and Miami’s dominance in the trenches, but considering what Ole Miss just got put through, thanks to Lane Kiffin, there was obviously an aura of understanding from media following the Rebels’ loss. When Golding was asked about his team and what he’ll remember most, his answers were touching:
“I think I’ll just remember how they embraced each other,” Golding said. “There was a lot over the last month or so or however long it’s been now. Somebody could have not been a good dude. Somebody could have not worked hard. Somebody could have not showed up on time, and I can’t recall one issue. That’s just based on who these guys are. They took the team — when all this occurred — guys like these two guys [QB Trinidad Chambliss and LB TJ Dottery, sitting next to him at the press conference] showed up every day, and went to work, and made sure the people around them went to work.
“But to me, it’s the smiles, man. It’s the memories. It’s the laughs. It’s the time with those guys, and to see the camaraderie that they grew together. They’re going to be talking about this for a long time, right? Some of it is going to be, “What could have happened?”, and all those type of things. But they’ve made memories this year in that locker room that will last a lifetime. For a lot of this group coming back, there’s going to be a little chip on their shoulder. But also the guys that are leaving, this is a legacy of a team that’s going to be celebrated for a while.”
Golding doesn’t hold back with his thoughts on how special Trinidad Chambliss’ season was
Golding didn’t stop there when it came to sharing his thoughts on just how special this 13-2 team was this year. And he spent a little extra time talking through just how special Chambliss is, and what his incredible season means to both him and the program:
“I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for [Trinidad Chambliss] since he got here because he’s a D-II boy,” Golden said. “I said from the very beginning — for a guy like that to come with one year into the SEC with an offense that was already in place, with a guy that had already signed to be the franchise guy, it just showed his confidence in himself. I said a lot of this to a lot of different people. When he first got here, you didn’t even hear him, you just saw him. You saw him with his head down, working his ass off, right? Then you start seeing people gravitating to him, and they wanted to be around him, because he works his butt off and he’s a good teammate.
“He celebrated with Austin [Simmons] at scrimmages when he would throw good balls. You wanted to be around him because of who he was. Then at fall camp, the [starting] defense against the [backup] offense. When he was running with the twos, we couldn’t stop his ass. I knew if something happened to Austin, that we were in pretty good hands. It’s just awesome to see good things happen to good people…For him, I couldn’t be happier. He’s kind of set a precedent here in one year that’s going to be pretty hard to match.”
It’s always tough to lose. When an amazing run ends, the feeling is never good. However, Golding’s comments on this year’s Ole Miss Rebels perfectly capture the heart of what made it so special. It didn’t matter how much noise there was around the Kiffin fiasco.
It didn’t matter that there were constant doubters. It didn’t matter that the future was uncertain. This team had each other, leaned in, and put together the best season in the history of the Ole Miss Rebels football program.
Is there still more work to be done? Absolutely. Coach Golding acknowledged that fact in the presser, too. Is there a ton to celebrate about this year’s team? Definitely. Hopefully, Ole Miss fans can look back on this year fondly, and perhaps on the beginning of something even bigger, after the crushing disappointment wears off.
We’ll be back with more Ole Miss Rebels coverage here at A to Z Sports soon. Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news.
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