OXFORD | Pete Golding wanted to coach Suntarine Perkins. He just didn’t know for sure where that was going to be yet.

He recruited Perkins to wait.

Golding was then the defensive coordinator at Alabama, and Perkins was a Rivals100 five-star linebacker from Raleigh, Mississippi. Golding had the Mississippi product as the No. 1 linebacker in the country on his personal recruiting board, and Alabama was trying to swipe him from the Rebels.

So, leading up to the December signing period, Golding did his job and promoted Alabama, but he was also wanting Perkins to wait until February to sign for a reason other than more time to flip the Ole Miss commitment.

Golding knew he might be about to make a move, and he didn’t want Perkins in Tuscaloosa without him.

“That (is) a vey personal relationship,” Golding said about his dynamic with Perkins. “I was actually trying to talk him into signing in February because I still wasn’t talking to anyone but thought it was about time to make a move for my family. Hold off, let’s see because I didn’t want him to sign with Alabama and me not be there or he sign somewhere else and I not go there.”

Ole Miss closed on Perkins, and he signed with the Rebels on December 21. Less than a month later, Golding left Alabama and joined him in Oxford after five seasons with the Crimson Tide, including four as defensive coordinator. Golding, who played at Delta State and also had defensive coordinator stints at his alma mater, Tusculum, Southeastern Louisiana and UTSA as well as a position coach job at Southern Miss, chose the Rebels for the football and the quality of life.

He wasn’t interested in a step back in coaching, but he wanted to consider his family — wife Carolyn and children Braxton, Bentley and Bailey. Ole Miss provided a high level of football and the place his family wanted to live. It was more than Alabama versus Ole Miss.

“You get so locked in with a career and the next step… and when you’re married with three kids, sometimes you lose the value of what it’s really about,” Golding said. “Having won national championships and SEC championships, I wanted to go somewhere that my family could be more involved, number one, and number two my wife graduated from Ole Miss. She was born and raised in Mississippi. My mom was born and raised in Mississippi. I played in Mississippi.

“You can go somewhere that’s already had success, but I think is very close to being elite year in and year out, and you can have an impact to help that, especially on your side of the ball. While also being somewhere that your wife wants to be and has always wanted to be. You still do what you love to do. That’s special and doesn’t happen a lot. I enjoyed the place I was at, and I learned a ton. It had nothing to do with Alabama. It was based on being a better husband and a better father.”

Golding took the job and immediately hit the portal and the evaluation of his own roster. Ole Miss was No. 57 nationally in defense a season ago, and Lane Kiffin has routinely built his Rebel teams through transfers. Golding knew he needed reinforcements, but he also was optimistic about some of the pieces in red and blue when he arrived.

The first step was seeing what’s there so a coach can know what he needs.

“When you come to a place, you don’t look at what they can’t do,” Golding said. “You take the guys we have and what position can we put those guys on our roster in to have success in the SEC West,” Golding said. “I thought there was talent up front and size and the ability to rush the passer.

"We needed to add depth to that and I think we did with the spring portal. The back end was depleted with numbers. We had guys with skill who missed the spring. You take what you got and do what you can, and we had a roster that will help us play winning football.”

Golding is three weeks away from his first game with the Rebels. Ole Miss hosts Mercer on September 2, and he will get to do what he hoped for months ago — coach Perkins, who has quickly turned heads at linebacker.

The Rebels holding on to him in December led to Golding getting his wish.

“Ole Miss did a good job in the recruiting process,” Golding said. “It was meant to be. It worked out how it was supposed to.”