Ole Miss forced four turnovers in a 52-17 win at Vanderbilt. On Monday, Pete Golding spent part of his Missouri week press conference explaining why that number does not impress him much.
Some of them were opportunistic. A couple of them were tipped balls, you know, and the tips and overthrows, which you always got to be able to have. But, you know, we were able to try to create a couple more. And that’s what I kind of went through last night. We had some missed opportunities in that game to actually take the ball away.
Then he got specific about what he saw on the tape.
There’s still the actual takeaway component of driving on the ball, matching the angle, snapping the eyes, and undercutting a route. Like, we’re dropping those right there. We’re a step late right now based on the eyes. So that’s something when you play better teams that aren’t going to give you the football, like you got to go take it away.
That is the tension of the whole week. Golding’s defense just forced four turnovers and held Vanderbilt to 103 rushing yards, and the head coach is telling you the next opponent will not give it the same chances. He said Missouri quarterback Austin Simmons has turned the ball over once all season.
Three former Rebels, and why two of them left
No. 13 Missouri comes to Vaught-Hemingway on Saturday with three players who were at Ole Miss last season: Simmons, receiver Cayden Lee and defensive back Chris Graves Jr. Golding called them guys who “started here for us, you know, on a playoff football team.”
Asked about his relationship with Simmons and Lee, he explained why both left, and the answer was about timing, not a falling out.
Both them boys know I love them. They were unbelievable throughout the process. You know, even from the Austin situation, completely understood it. You play quarterback, we play one of them. All right, here’s an appeal process going on. He couldn’t take that risk.
On Lee, he said Lee “loved his time at Ole Miss” but “wasn’t comfortable yet knowing whether the appeal was going to go through or not, and did he really want to risk the season based on that?” Golding added, “We’d have loved obviously to still have him.”
On Graves, whom he recruited and coached, he wished him well, with one exception. “I wish him a lot of luck other than this week, right? I mean, we’re playing against him, so we’re trying to whoop Chris’s a— this week, you know?”
The familiarity runs both ways. Golding said the Missouri pass game “goes through” Lee, calling him “very elusive” and an “elite route runner,” and adding that Lee “has a really good football intelligence of what we’re doing defensively.” On Simmons: “He’s got elite arm talent, always has. He’s more athletic than you think.”
How you scheme a quarterback who sat in your meetings
Asked whether he would add new looks for a quarterback who knows the system, Golding described the approach he takes every week, and it applies here more than usual.
I think the big deal in every week is how do you make the same things look different and different things look the same? And so, like, you want to make quarterbacks play after they get the ball in their hand and you want them to think, hey, this is what I think it is. This is what Coach has told me all week. And this is where I’m supposed to go with the ball. Oh s—, it’s not that.
One more connection: Kewan Lacy began his career at Missouri. Asked whether that gives Lacy an edge this week, Golding said, “I forgot about that, to be honest with you.”
The Missouri matchup he flagged
Asked whether Ole Miss is catching the hottest team in the league, Golding said “it feels like that every week right now” and that the Tigers are “averaging, you know, 36 points a game and taking care of the football.” Then he named the problem.
The back’s a really good player, you know. I think he has the most yards after contact right now, which is something that, you know, has been an issue for us on tape. So we’re going to have to do a really good job in the run game, obviously, hopefully to stop the run game, make them one-dimensional.
Missouri running back Jamal Roberts ran 34 times for 222 yards against Texas A&M on Saturday.
On what changed against Vanderbilt, which ran for 103 yards two weeks after Florida ran for 302, Golding said: “I think effort, number one. I think number two, I think the violence at the point of attack.” He did not call it fixed. “It wasn’t perfect. You know, I told y’all that after the game. There’s still some times that you see some lost leverages. We still missed a couple of tackles, but it was much more consistent.”
He also had a measured read on Missouri’s defense: “super sound,” and “probably one of the lesser aggressive units that we’ve seen.”
All five linemen were player of the game
We have players of the game every week, and that’s the first game this year that we came out and the offensive line was — all 5 were the player of the game.
Ole Miss ran for 196 yards in Nashville. Golding singled out left tackle Terez Davis: “He’s nasty. He’s explosive. He’s got really good feet.” And then, “I would say right now he’s playing elite football.”
At right tackle, Connor Howes played every snap after Tommy Kinsler IV was ruled out late. “Tommy was a little more banged up than we thought. You know, we thought we were getting him back healthy and kind of came out of pregame and wasn’t in a great spot.” On Howes: “I think he’s played his butt off.”
More for Shekai Mills-Knight, and the running back plan
Golding said the team went through the explosive-play reel Sunday night and “it was 7 different dudes.” When Shekai Mills-Knight’s 35-yard touchdown came up, “this place erupted.” He said that kind of game rep changes the coaching math.
As a coach, you got to evaluate, hey, when they get in and they do a really good job, it’s our responsibility to create more opportunities for them. And so, you know, looking at it, he is a different dimension back there from a size-speed standpoint.
Lacy will be managed the same way he was at Vanderbilt, where, Golding said, “there was a decision made that we shouldn’t need him for the second half.” Golding said Makhi Frazier “kind of separated himself” in practice and that JT Lindsey is “still in the mix,” giving Ole Miss “3 guys that we can roll in and hopefully not miss a beat.”
Injury update
Golding said safety Edwin Joseph Jr. was the only injury concern from Saturday. “It is an ankle. Obviously got diagnosed yesterday with an ankle sprain. We’re going to go get another opinion on that tomorrow.” He said Joseph is the only player who played Saturday who could potentially miss Missouri.
He also said getting “Caleb back really healthy will really help open up Deuce” Alexander.
No. 9 Ole Miss is 4-1, 2-1 in the SEC. Next up: No. 13 Missouri at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, Saturday, Oct. 17, at 2:30 p.m. CT. Hotty Toddy 🦈
Quotes from Pete Golding’s Missouri week press conference, Oct. 12, 2026. Rushing totals via Ole Miss Athletics; Missouri totals via Missouri Athletics. Photo: Pete Golding, October 10, 2026, at FirstBank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images.