Replacing Lane Kiffin: Can new Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding become the Steve Fisher of college football?

Key Highlights

• “Because there’s no way Bill Frieder’s going to coach them.”Thirty-six years after Schembechler famously told Frieder not to bother showing up to the NCAA tournament, that banishment has gained newfound relevance.
• It’s by far the closest historical precedent to the messy breakup that captivated the sports world over Thanksgiving weekend, the one that resulted in Ole Miss refusing to let Lane Kiffin coach the Rebels in the College Football Playoff after he spurned them for conference rival LSU. As sixth-seeded Ole Miss prepares for its opening-round matchup against 11th-seeded Tulane on Saturday, the Rebels will be hoping that the parallels with Michigan basketball don’t end with the ill-timed coaching change.
• They’ll try to emulate how the ‘89 Wolverines rallied around their anonymous new coach, embraced the role of jilted underdogs and stormed to their program’s first — and still only — national championship. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementCan newly promoted Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding become the Steve Fisher of college football?
• Can Golding enter the College Football Playoff with zero wins as a head coach and then guide the Rebels to an improbable national title?
• Fisher will be watching with great interest from his home in Del Mar, California.“Both teams were playing for national championships with a different head coach,” Fisher said.