Ole Miss Rebels head coach Hugh Freeze’s seat was already hot, and on Thursday night, he made it official and resigned, effective immediately.
Hugh Freeze enjoyed five successful years at the helm of the Ole Miss Rebels football team. However, with the school facing a self-imposed postseason ban and scholarship limit for the 2017 season, along with a lawsuit from former head coach Houston Nutt and possible NCAA punishment, Thursday’s news was the final straw.
According to a story from Pat Forde at yahoo.com, Freeze reportedly used a school-issued cell phone to call an escort service. Freeze claims it was a “misdial”, but with things already piling up, he and the university agreed to part ways.
Offensive coordinator, Matt Luke, will serve as the Rebels’ interim head coach.
Despite a respectable 39-25 record in five years at Ole Miss the laundry list of allegations was too much for the university to ignore. With the school staring down damning allegations, almost all the blame can be placed on Freeze.
Among the allegations, Freeze was cited for failure to monitor, arguably the worst violation a head coach can commit. In addition, Freeze is also facing a show-cause order that could keep him from the sidelines for the foreseeable future. In an attempt to lessen the penalties suffered at the hands of the NCAA, Ole Miss self-imposed a postseason ban for the 2017-2018 season, and also reduced the number of scholarships allowed.
Houston Nutt Lawsuit
While the NCAA allegations are harsh, what ultimately knocked Freeze from grace was a lawsuit filed by former Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt, whom Freeze succeeded.
As part of the lawsuit, Nutt is suing the school for defamation of character. Nutt also claims that the school violated it’s severance agreement, according to Sports Illustrated. In the same article, Sports Illustrated also reported that Nutt has accused both Freeze and Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork of talking to journalists “off-the-record” in order to blame Nutt for the NCAA investigation. What cannot be avoided is the fact that 17 of the 21 allegations occurred during Freeze’s tenure.
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Confused yet? So are we. Why would a coach who had always preached character be involved in such a mess? In simple terms, recruiting was the main factor in this debacle. In order to keep his 2016 recruiting class, Freeze began telling journalists to spin the story in order to place maximum fault on Nutt. This was also mentioned in the lawsuit filed by Nutt. In the 2016 recruiting class, Freeze was able to land the nation’s top-ranked quarterback in Shea Patterson, on his way to landing the no. 5 recruiting class in the country according to 247sports.
Nutt is represented by prominent lawyer, Thomas A. Marrs, who was lead counsel for Walmart for seven years, in addition to serving as director of the Arkansas State Police. According to Sports Illustrated, the NCAA plans to punish Ole Miss with a two-year bowl ban and a reduction of twenty scholarships, although no sanctions have been placed yet.
While losing Hugh Freeze is a penalty in itself, Ole Miss is still at the mercy of the NCAA. With the latest allegations surfacing today, a harsher penalty may be in order in Oxford.