While the Ole Miss Football staff sustained heavy losses following former head coach Lane Kiffin’s departure to LSU, Pete Golding and Ole Miss have made quick efforts to hire replacements.
Prior experience with the Rebels is a common theme of the hirings so far. Ole Miss has hired L’Damian Washington as a wide receivers coach, Michael Spurlock as an offensive assistant and wide receivers coach, Frank Wilson as running backs coach and John David Baker as offensive coordinator.
At 34 years old, Washington is a relatively new coach and only recently finished his professional playing career in 2020. He played for several teams across the NFL, Canadian Football League, Alliance of American Football and XFL before coaching at Oklahoma, Western Kentucky and South Florida.
Spurlock spent last season as the running backs coach at Southern Miss. He played for Ole Miss from 2001-05, where he started as both a quarterback and running back. He played wide receiver in the NFL; more recently, he served as a senior analyst for the Rebels in 2020-21.
He brings an abundance of personal experience and knowledge.
Wilson stepped up as LSU’s interim head coach this past season when Brian Kelly was fired from the helm. He rejoins the Rebels after serving as a running backs coach under Ed Orgeron from 2005-07.
Baker returns to the Rebels after coaching at Ole Miss from 2021-23 as the passing game coordinator, tight ends coach and co-offensive coordinator. Most recently, he served as the offensive coordinator at East Carolina.
The Rebels have also made several staff moves. The program welcomed Austin Thomas as general manager and Kelvin Bolden as coordinator of recruiting strategy.
Thomas has gone back and forth between Ole Miss and LSU his whole career. He was the general manager for LSU in 2021. He then served as the senior associate athletic director for Ole Miss from 2022-2024 before returning to LSU to work as the senior associate athletic director in 2024. Now, he is back with the Rebels.
Similarly, Bolden was coordinator of recruiting strategy at Ole Miss from 2021-24 before LSU hired him as senior associate athletics director and assistant general manager. He rejoins Ole Miss in a recruiting role.
The staff includes some highly desired candidates this cycle.
Current co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach Bryan Brown described why people want to coach under Pete Golding.
“He’s a dog and just a really great guy,” Brown said in a press conference on Tuesday. “One of the reasons I took this job was because of him. … This is a dream come true to work with a guy I’ve known and probably the smartest football coach I’ve ever worked with or ever known.”
In recent press conferences, Golding has stated that part of his goal in hiring these familiar faces is to retain as much of the roster as possible for the 2026 season.
Nine Ole Miss coaches and staffers followed Kiffin to LSU, but some will continue to coach the Rebels through the playoffs. These coaches include offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., quarterbacks coach Dane Stevens, wide receivers coach George McDonald, tight ends coach Joe Cox and strength and conditioning coaches Sawyer Jordan and Nick Savage, who have all signed term sheets with LSU.
