On Thursday Night, we watched the confetti fall in New Orleans as the Ole Miss Rebels celebrated their incredible College Football Playoff win over Georgia. Pete Golding and the Rebels had already won in the first round of the playoffs to kick-start the Pete Golding era, but the win felt even more notable for several reasons.
Winning in New Orleans felt like a statement sent across the state to Lane Kiffin, who's in Baton Rouge at the program he felt gave him a better chance to win the National Championship. While Lane Kiffin was hyping the crowd up walking out with Kim Mulkey for the LSU Women's Basketball Game, Pete Golding was surpassing his best accomplishments.
Pete Golding has delivered a moment Lane Kiffin has searched for everywhere he's been
As the Ole Miss Rebels celebrated in the confetti, one thing became clear, Pete Golding already has the moment that Lane Kiffin has searched for, burned programs down for, and stabbed people in the back for, yet he still hasn't been able to grab it.
In Lane Kiffin's career as a head coach, his biggest achievement was winning a pair of Conference USA Championships. While it means a lot for Florida Atlantic, most fans couldn't name a player on those teams and likely forget he even coached there. He's jumped from big-name program to big-name program between Tennessee, USC, Ole Miss, and now he's onto LSU, looking to have the moment of glory.
By taking the LSU job and leaving Ole Miss before the College Football Playoff, Lane Kiffin all but admitted that he didn't think this team was good enough to beat teams like Georgia. Earlier this year we saw Lane Kiffin try to knock off Kirby Smart and instead blow a 4th quarter lead.
Pete Golding was the coach who didn't get on the plane with Lane Kiffin to Baton Rouge, and the fans would've given him the longest leash possible if he struggled early on. It looks like Pete Golding doesn't need that extra support as he looks more than ready for the moment.
In just his second game as a head coach, Pete Golding went into the locker room with his team after things looked bleak with a sizeable deficit and one of the best coaches in the sport on the other sideline and rallied his team for a win.
Lane Kiffin may end up winning countless National Championships at LSU and show that he made the right decision, or he could fail like Brian Kelly. In the end, he abandoned his team, saying they're not good enough to win it all, and instead, they continue to prove him wrong.