The rollercoaster that was the Hugh Freeze era in Oxford
By Matt Green
There are 39 days till college football season, and today we talk about a guy who has been all over the headlines, Hugh Freeze.
Neil Young once wrote, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” Well Hugh Freeze must have taken that to heart, because that perfectly describes his tenure in Oxford.
After going 4-8 and 2-10 in 2010 and 2011, the Ole Miss Rebels fired Houston Nutt. The man who took the job was Freeze, and until about a year ago, he appeared to be doing everything right at Ole Miss and elevated them into national prominence.
And that leads us to no. 39 on the Southbound and Down College Football Countdown.
Hugh Freeze went 39-25 in five years at Ole Miss
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Freeze took over in 2012 and increased his win total every year until last season. The Rebels won 7 games in 2012, then 8 in 2013, 9 in 2014, and 10 in 2015, which included a Sugar Bowl win over Oklahoma State.
His 39 wins were fourth among SEC coaches over the last five years. Only Nick Saban, Dan Mullen, and Kevin Sumlin had more wins over the last five years.
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Unfortunately for Rebels fans, there was more to the story. Freeze and company weren’t exactly playing fair on the recruiting trail when they signed the no. 8 recruiting class in the country in 2013. That class was headlined by five-stars Robert Nkemdiche, Laremy Tunsil, Laquon Tredwell, and Tony Conner.
And with the NCAA breathing down Freeze’s neck, investigating the recruitment of Tunsil, most thought Freeze’s fate was going to be decided by NCAA sanctions, but a different story broke.
By now you’ve likely heard that Freeze was fired by Ole Miss after his phone records indicated he “misdialed” an escort service. Mark Schlabach wrote a bizarre story for ESPN.com about how a single phone call led to Hugh Freeze’s downfall.
So with the Hugh Freeze era officially over, Matt Luke is the new man, if only on an interim basis. We’ll just have to sit back and see what the future hold for the Ole Miss Rebels.