Ole Miss Football will fall short in 2024: Here's why

Ole Miss Football arguably had the most impressive off season leading up to the 2024 season. They made headlines in the NIL space, as well as some key transfer portal acquisitions filling holes on their roster with elite talent.

In fact, the Rebels’ transfer portal class was so solid On3 ranked it as the number three portal class in the country behind only Colorado and Louisville. Top acquisitions included linebacker Chris “Poo” Paul Jr., Edge rusher Princely Unamielen, defensive tackle Walter Nolan and many more.

The acquisitions combined with Ole Miss’s successful 2023 campaign in head coach Lane Kiffin’s 11-2 campaign have folks in Oxford with high expectations in 2024. Not to mention as well the Rebels bring back quarterback Jaxson Dart who will be a Heisman Trophy favorite going into his third season as the starter.

Why will Ole Miss Football have a disappointing season in 2024?

Despite the talent and Kiffin’s high powered offense that will inevitably score points, there is a gap on defense. And that gap starts and stops with defensive coordinator Pete Golding. Unfortunately for the Rebels, the stars they obtained and that are coming back on the defensive side of the ball may be hampered by Golding’s track record and inability to get the best out of his best players.

LockedOn Ole Miss Host, Steven Willis states “Ole Miss needs three things for their defense to be elite. They need the stars to play like stars…the Juco (Junior College) signees are low key very important for this Ole Miss defense and they need to be an explosive unit.”

While it is unquestionable that the Rebels have the Stars as Willis eludes to, I do not think Rebels fans are being realistic about what they inherited from Alabama in Pete Golding.

How did Pete Golding do as the defensive coordinator at Alabama?

Points per game increased: Golding’s points per game increased from 14.8 allowed in his first season to a high of 20.2 by 2021. Although it did go down to 18 points per game in 2022, that was far below expectations for Tide fans that prided themselves on defense under then head coach Nick Saban. And defensive coordinators before Golding showed that it could be done with defenses well below the 16.4 points per game average that Golding had during his five years as defensive coordinator in Tuscaloosa.

Takeaways per game decreased: Golding’s defenses at Alabama never averaged over two takeaways per game, and only averaged over 1.5 takeaways per game two times in his five seasons. Golding’s defenses regressed so much in this category that his average takeaways per game was down to .9 in 2022, which ranked 120th in the country.

Production of star players went down: Speaking of star players, one of the Crimson Tide’s brightest all time was there during the Golding years, and that is linebacker Will Anderson. After 102 tackles and 17.5 sacks in his sophomore season, Anderson regressed to 51 tackles and 10 sacks his junior year. While these are still good numbers, they were not great considering the caliber of player Anderson was.

How has Pete Golding done so far at Ole Miss?

In his one and only season as defensive coordinator for the Rebels in 2023, Golding’s defense allowed 22.3 points per game for a national ranking of 59th. They also managed to only have 1.3 takeaways per game, which was only good enough for 88th in the country.

In Golding’s defense, this was year one. However, his best years at Alabama and averages indicate that there will not be much improvement beyond what the Rebels defense did in 2023. And although this will be an improved defense at the end of the day for the Rebels compared to what they have had before Golding arrived, do not expect it to meet their expectations of national championship in 2024.

No matter how much talent you have on the field, the production is what really matters at the end of the day. And the stats at Alabama and Ole Miss say otherwise for Golding.