After Lane Kiffin’s departure, it was defensive coordinator Pete Golding who steered the Ole Miss ship in the 2025 playoffs. Now that Golding is the Rebels’ official head coach, Patrick Toney took up the DC role after the team hired him on January 7th. However, after carrying the tag for just seven weeks, Toney received significant interest from NFL teams.

Yesterday, the team announced that Toney will leave the Rebels to join the Falcons as their new defensive pass game coordinator.

That leaves the Rebels’ defensive coordinator role wide open. For the time being, Golding is expected to take up the defensive playcalling duties for the 2026 season until Ole Miss decides on a candidate. Let’s explore some potential options who can fill the defensive coordinator vacancy.

Bryan Brown

The most logical thing Ole Miss can do is promote internally rather than find someone new. As of now, Brown is the “Head Coach of the Defense” and co-defensive coordinator, making him the most natural successor to Toney. He previously served as the defensive coordinator at Louisville and Cincinnati and has been a key leader on the Rebels’ staff under both Lane Kiffin and Golding.

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From 2019 to 2022, Brown headed the Cardinals’ defense and is credited with revamping a unit that was statistically one of the worst in Power 5 history. During his first year, he saw slow but noticeable improvements from the previous seasons. The unit allowed 33.4 points per game, which ranked 109th nationally but was a jump from the 44.1 PPG allowed in 2018.

The year after that, the defense saw further improvement with 26.6 PPG, ranking third in the ACC. The unit stalled in 2021, yielding 27.3 points, before fielding one of the nation’s most aggressive defenses in 2022. That year, they led the FBS in sacks (50) and ranked 3rd in takeaways (30), while finishing 11th in scoring defense (19.2 PPG).

However, his 2023 transition to the Big 12 to coach the Bearcats was not as successful. The secondary struggled under his watch, finishing last in the conference by allowing 6.7 yards per play. After just one season, Brown returned to his alma mater at Ole Miss, where he nurtured Trey Amos into a 2025 second-round NFL Draft pick with a decade-high 13 pass breakups in 2024.

The familiarity speaks volumes. That’s why Brown is the most logical choice to take over as the Rebels’ full-time defensive playcaller.

Randall Joyner

Joyner has been with the Rebels for the last five seasons. As an associate head coach and defensive line coach, he is a rising star in coaching circles and remains a core member of the defensive leadership team. In the 2024 season, Joyner’s defensive line set program records with 52 sacks and 120 tackles for loss.

He tutored a unit featuring elite athletes like Walter Nolen and Princely Umanmielen, playing a key role in retaining Umanmielen for the 2025 season. This success made him an attractive figure for other teams, but Joyner chose to remain loyal to Pete Golding in Oxford. Because of this loyalty, he was promoted to Associate Head Coach after the 2025 season, gaining broader influence over team management and defensive plans.

Before Ole Miss, Joyner led an SMU D-line that ranked No. 1 nationally in sacks per game in 2019. Because of this production, Joyner gained traction as a potential defensive coordinator, with players like Reggie Roberson Jr. campaigning for him on social media. Promoting him to lead the entire Rebels’ defense as the new DC makes a lot of sense.

Ron Roberts

This is one outside hire that makes a bit of sense. The current Razorbacks defensive coordinator just joined the staff this season. While this move can be difficult, Golding can use his ties with Roberts. Both of them have a long-standing mentor-protégé relationship that blossomed during their time at Delta State University and Southeastern Louisiana University. Many consider Golding a prominent member of Roberts’ “coaching tree.” 

When Golding played safety as a senior at Delta State, Roberts was the defensive coordinator. After a graduate assistant stint in 2006 and three years coaching at Tusculum, Golding returned to his alma mater in 2010 as the DC under head coach Roberts. He later followed Roberts to Southeastern Louisiana, building a deep shared history that Golding could now leverage.

People often credit Roberts as a major innovator of the defensive schemes that Golding later implemented at major programs like Alabama and Ole Miss. That makes him an attractive option for the Rebels, but pulling him away from Arkansas will be difficult. Roberts is getting paid $2 million annually on an agreement running through February 28, 2029, meaning Ole Miss would need to top the Razorbacks’ offer and pay the buyout.

Wes Neighbors III

This is another probable hire from within the program. While both coaches have deep ties to Nick Saban’s Alabama system, their actual time coaching together started at Ole Miss. Neighbors has spent the last three seasons working directly alongside Golding as the Rebels’ safeties coach.

Neighbors joined the Ole Miss staff as a safeties coach. Neighbors has already served as an interim defensive coordinator during Louisiana’s victory in the 2021 R+L New Orleans Bowl. During this game, Neighbors led a defense that held Marshall to 21 points in a bowl victory.

Glenn Schumann

Lastly, many consider the current defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at the University of Georgia one of the best young defensive minds in college football. However, the pull is based on being a part of Nick Saban’s coaching tree. Both Schumann and Golding were a part of Alabama’s staff under Saban at different times, which is why they bring a disciplined, complex, and aggressive 3-4 hybrid scheme that thrives in the modern SEC.

Schumann has held the co-coordinator role since 2019 for the Bulldogs. He contributed significantly to Georgia’s back-to-back national championship wins and has a reputation for elite talent development. Under his guidance, Georgia has produced three Butkus Award winners: Roquan Smith (2017), Nakobe Dean (2021), and Jalon Walker (2024), though his loyalty to the Bulldogs makes him a difficult pull.