We’ve seen this movie before and it doesn’t end well for Ole Miss.

PublishedNovember 30, 2025 6:35 PM EST•UpdatedNovember 30, 2025 6:24 PM EST

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With the not-so-shocking news that Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin will be taking his talents to Baton Rouge, changes are to be expected in Oxford.

Most of those changes have and will be well received.

It looks like defensive coordinator Pete Golding will be named the new head coach, and thanks to some leaked audio from a team meeting earlier today, the players are pretty stoked.

It hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows for the Ole Miss faithful, though.

Kiffin also decided to take respected Rebels offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. as well as his brother and defensive analyst, Chris Kiffin.

While the staff changes will be impactful, it’s admirable to see the Ole Miss powers that be stopped the bleeding as much as possible.

The same can’t be said for the Rebels’ 2026 recruiting class, however.

It started earlier this afternoon, when Ole Miss suffered its first casualty on the recruiting trail in the form of four-star safety, Trae Collins, decommitting from the Rebels’ class.

Not to be outdone, another four-star, this time wide receiver Corey Barber, revoked his pledge to Ole Miss less than two hours later.

I’ve said it before, but Ole Miss isn’t exactly a blue-chip factory when it comes to recruiting, so losing two four-star prospects between lunchtime and dinner is quite a blow.

It’s a class that has already fallen out of the top-20 at the time of writing, and with Early Signing Day mere days away, the Rebels can ill afford anymore attrition to their class, lest they want to set their new head coach up behind the 8-ball to start his tenure in Oxford.

It will be interesting to see what becomes of the 2026 recruiting class at Ole Miss.

“Transition classes” are notoriously some of the weakest in a head coach’s time at a school – for obvious reasons – but if Golding can minimize the damage and right the recruiting ship in the ‘Sip, he will have finished right around his predecessor’s average recruiting ranking in Mississippi.

Let’s pray that ends up being the case, because I don’t think Rebels fans can take much more heartbreak.