In what may be one of the biggest blind sides of the offseason, five-year head coach Hugh Freeze has been voluntarily relieved of his duties as the head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels.
ANNOUNCEMENT | Hugh Freeze has resigned effective immediately. Matt Luke interim head coach. Press conference live at 7:30 PM CT on ESPNews.
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) July 20, 2017
In those five seasons in Oxford, he led the team to a 39-25 record and a handful of extremely memorable moments. They took down the Goliath that is Alabama two years in a row and gave the Tide another scare last season as well. He signed what was by far some of the best recruiting classes in all of Rebels’ history early on, and even snatched a Sugar Bowl victory in 2015.
However, all of his success could not cover up the scandal that lied beneath.
The lengthy list of 21 NCAA Violations were responded to by the University back in February, and it appeared they were willing to live or die by Freeze. Even after ex-HC Houston Nutt filed a lawsuit the day before Freeze’s appearance at SEC Media Days, the head-honchos still seemed intent to roll with the 47-year-old.
Apparently, new information has been uncovered, and it was much more damning:
Ole Miss found at least one call on Hugh Freeze’s Ole Miss cell phone to female escort service in Tampa, Yahoo Sports & USA Today report
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 20, 2017
With the NCAA’s focus set in Louisville, Kentucky, after the alleged ‘escort’ fiasco with Rick Pitino and his Louisville Basketball Cardinals, Ole Miss’ decision-makers must no longer feel confident keeping Freeze around to be best for the program.
While he was not technically ‘fired’, it is likely he was pressured to step down after the surfacing of new information. Much like Baylor did by firing Art Briles, many feel canning the head coach ‘responsible’ for the violations to be a great way to win back some of the NCAA’s favor.
It was also announced that his replacement will be former OL Coach/Co-OC Matt Luke.
Ole Miss has concurrently scheduled a press conference to be held live on ESPN at 7:30 CT.
