OXFORD — Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding spent the 2023 season on a balance beam.

Stray too far toward the complex defensive system he operated at Alabama and risk overwhelming a group of players still learning the basics. Opt for a more vanilla approach and risk getting shredded by the SEC's talented offenses.

"There's a fine line in this league," Golding said Thursday. "If you're not better than the opposing team, and they know what (defense) you're in, you're going to get your (butt) beat. So there's a fine line trying to find ways to win football games where you're not always the most talented team. In order to do that, sometimes you gotta have the chalk last and it's not gonna be perfect and you're gonna put some things on them."

He largely succeeded in his endeavor — the Rebels finished as a top-half SEC defense for the first time in Lane Kiffin's four-year tenure as coach.

Now he gets to repeat the cycle. In the modern transfer portal era, every year feels a bit like the first year in a system. Especially at Ole Miss, which relies more heavily on transfers than any other SEC program.

"Every year I think you're going to have a new defense and offense to some degree," Golding said, "and I think that's helped us try to simplify some things to where, when you're getting guys that are coming here for one season and one year, they can adapt, learn the system, play fast and contribute and play winning football."

In Week 3 last season, Golding's defense started eight players who hadn't even been on campus for spring ball.

The unfamiliarity isn't quite so drastic heading into 2024, but the Rebels are certain to feature many key players who haven't been in Golding's system. Ole Miss brought in 10 defensive transfers this offseason — many of them veterans who will be counted on to start from the jump.

Golding is doing his best to keep it simple for those newcomers, but they still face a challenge.

"Golding does have one of the toughest defenses I've had to learn," Florida transfer Princely Umanmielen said this week. "I've had to put in extra work. I just texted him last night at like 10:30 p.m. asking him about a play."

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Fortunately for Golding, he can rely on some veterans to help him teach.

The Rebels brought back the likes of Jared Ivey, JJ Pegues, John Saunders and Trey Washington, all of whom saw success under Golding's system in 2023.

"I think the biggest thing for that and the biggest impact is them helping the new guys, whereas last year, if it didn't come from a coach, nobody knew it because it was the first time," Golding said. "To where now you got a lot of players that are coaches that have been in the system that can help these guys continue to develop when a coach isn't around."

David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.

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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: How Pete Golding teaches transfer-heavy Ole Miss football defense