Pete Golding knows Austin Simmons.
Austin Simmons knows Pete Golding.
They saw each other gameplan and are familiar with the product they put out on the field during three years together at Ole Miss.
So, who was paying more attention?
No. 13 Missouri football travels Saturday to Oxford, Mississippi, to face No. 10/9-ranked Ole Miss. The winner between the Tigers (5-1, 2-1 SEC) and Rebels (4-1, 2-1) will have a leg up in the chase for a spot in the College Football Playoff. The loser won’t mathematically be eliminated, but the path becomes extremely unforgiving. The stakes are high.
And this massive, telling, top-15 matchup just so happens to pit several players against their former team.
Simmons, wide receiver Cayden Lee and cornerback Chris Graves Jr. all transferred from Ole Miss to Mizzou this past offseason, and all have become key players for the Tigers in 2026.
Over on the other sideline Saturday will be running back Kewan Lacy, who transferred to Ole Miss from Mizzou after spending his true freshman season in Columbia in 2024.
The crossover has, of course, been a major topic of discussion.
Both head coaches, Mizzou’s Eli Drinkwitz and Golding at Ole Miss, were asked about all of the players mentioned above during their midweek press conferences.
Golding was the defensive coordinator for the full three years Simmons and Lee were in Columbia. He said he recruited Graves, who was a starting corner on Ole Miss’ CFP semifinals team last season.
The Ole Miss coach, who was extremely complimentary of all three former Rebels who are now on Mizzou’s roster, specifically was asked this week what it’s like scouting a quarterback that he’s seen so much of in practice over the past three years.
More: Ole Miss coach on Mizzou QB Austin Simmons: ‘Scary to know how good he is’
That familiarity, he said, “helps more than it hurts.”
“There's certain things you got to go back to from a scrimmage standpoint and all those things. What affected him? What didn't affect him?” Golding said. “So, you know a little bit about the personality and the mentality and all that. Different offense now, different scheme, different design and all those types of things, but I think it helps more than it hurts when you know guys' demeanors and you know how they think and all those types of things.”
Golding had his say.
So, we thought we’d ask Eli Drinkwitz the reverse.
Do you do anything differently when the opposing head coach knows so much about a handful of your key players, or is it business and gameplan as usual?
Drinkwitz had his own reverse on that idea.
“I think I’d be more concerned with what we know about them,” the Mizzou coach responded. “Austin's been going against that defense for three years. Cayden Lee went against that defense for three years. So, the difference is what they know against those guys was based off of a system that they ran while they were there. We don't run anything like what they ran. We have our own system.
“I think the advantage for us is we kind of know what they do, and we’ve got Chris to tell us what their base defense is, so I'm not nearly concerned with that.”
Cat, meet mouse. Mouse, cat. Who can outwit whom?
That’s the chess match that will help define Saturday’s game. Who has a better grasp on what the other is trying to do? Who can most effectively stop someone they should know quite a good deal about?
It’s still all fairly new for this many players to be facing their former teams.
Not that new, mind you. Mizzou has already been through it with players like left tackle Cayden Green, who has played Oklahoma twice in his career and will do so again in November. This season, Mizzou saw former wide receiver Marquis Johnson in a game at Mississippi State, which is where the Tigers’ current right tackle, Luke Work, spent the past two years.
But this is, at the very least, a little bit different.
It’s hard to imagine that there’s not a little bit more meaning in a game like this for someone like Simmons. He’s been widely praised in Oxford for how well he handled going from the Week 1 starter to Trindiad Chambliss’ backup last season.
Drinkwitz echoed a lot of those same sentiments Tuesday.
“I think the biggest thing is he's a tremendous teammate,” Drinkwitz said. “He showed great leadership. To go from being the starting quarterback to getting Wally Pipp’d, and now you're having to be the encourager — he does the same things that he does here, as far as being a guy that daps everybody up when they leave the tunnel, prepared like he was a starter if he ever got his moment.
“I think that says a lot about who he is as a person, that he could find the emotional maturity to believe in himself, but also be a good leader and not make it about him.”
It had to sting.
As MU running back Jamal Roberts said Tuesday, “I feel like those guys are definitely going to come out and play with a chip on their shoulder.”
Simmons has had a tremendous start to his Mizzou career. He’s averaging 239 passing yards per game and has thrown 14 touchdown passes and just a single interception. Lee leads the SEC in receiving yards. Graves has played the most snaps in MU’s cornerback rotation.
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Mizzou has a chance to put itself in prime position to make a run at the College Football Playoff with a win in Oxford. Ole Miss can do the same by holding serve at home.
Familiarity will play a role, but there’s a lot more at stake than a reunion.
“They're older, they're (veteran) guys, so they know what it’s like playing in games like this,” Green said, “but I think the biggest thing for us is keeping the main thing the main thing. They know we’ve got their back, so we’ve just got to go out there and play. This team is too good to be caught up in all that other stuff, so we’ve just got to keep the main thing the main thing.”
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Why Eli Drinkwitz isn’t concerned with Ole Miss' familiarity with Austin Simmons