Ole Miss plays at Vanderbilt at 2:30 p.m. Saturday as a road favorite, the market moving between 9.5 and 10.5 points. Pete Golding’s defense arrives carrying 62 missed tackles through four games, worth 482 rushing yards — roughly 70 percent of everything it has allowed on the ground.
Locked On Ole Miss host Steven Willis built Monday’s episode around one sentence from Golding’s press conference that he said he had to hear twice. Ole Miss, Willis argued, is not game-planning for one Vanderbilt offense or even two, but for a package that does not yet exist on film — and a head coach saying so four days out tells you what keeps him up.
Golding called Vanderbilt “almost like two different offenses depending on who’s playing quarterback.” One is a freshman with a “big arm” and a “really good quick release.” The other followed Vanderbilt’s offensive coordinator from New Mexico State and brought an option run game. Golding then said: “I think we will see both of them in the game. No doubt.” The staff, he said, needs a plan for all three scenarios.
“Their bread and butter is the G lead and they’re not hiding it,” Golding said, comparing Vanderbilt’s shifts, motions and personnel groupings to Florida, which ran for 302 yards against this defense. Vanderbilt will not snap with more than 15 seconds on the clock, he said, taking the call off the sideline and making players communicate after the motion.
Kewan Lacy is expected back on a snap count; Golding said he will not take “the toll of 40 to 50 snaps,” leaving carries for JT Lindsey and Makhi Frazier. Golding said the depth chart will not be set until Friday. Willis’s stakes: win out and Ole Miss hosts a playoff game, lose one more and December happens on the road.
Photo: Kewan Lacy, September 12, 2026, at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images.
Adapted from the October 6, 2026 episode of Locked On Ole Miss, hosted by Steven Willis, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Watch the full episode.