Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding embraces his defensive roots. Former Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables, a championship architect, shares crucial advice for thriving as a new head coach.
His powerful defenses helped Clemson win two national championships and appear in two more national championship games.
Frankly, the Tigers haven't been the same since Venables left to become the head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners in 2021.
It took a little while for Venables to adjust to the head coaching job with the Sooners. In 2025, he led the team to an appearance in the College Football Playoff, and the program is hoping to advance in 2026.
Venables gave some advice to Golding this offseason. Golding, like Venables, became a head coach after being a successful defensive coordinator for a long time.
Golding told ESPN's Heather Dinich that Venables advised him to remain in charge of the defense while being the head coach, since that's what allowed Golding to earn his promotion.
“He’s just like, ‘Look, you got that job for a lot of reasons, but the primary reason is you’ve always done a really good job with the defense, and if you’re able to do that, you need to continue to do that,'” Golding said, via a transcription from On3.
“I still want to be heavily involved and still call it and I enjoy doing that, so that kind of solidified if you’re going to do it, make sure I get really good people around me that can help in the management of things that allows me to watch enough tape to put our kids in a good spot.”
It’s hard for coaches at the college level to keep tabs on the playcalling duties when they earn the head coaching title. Even NFL coaches can struggle with the change.
Head coaches have extra duties to do during the week, including meeting with boosters to fundraise and other weekly meetings with the coaching staff.
Golding initially thought he'd take on the role of being a CEO coach at Ole Miss. But he said the conversation with Venables changed his mind.