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Arrogance - The Rise and Fall of Hugh Freeze
Arrogance - The Rise and Fall of Hugh Freeze
Elitedawgs.com
July 26, 2017
Unless you have been under a rock or in a coma, you have heard about the unceremonious firing resignation of former Ole Miss Coach Hugh Freeze. How could such a fine Christian man, who was as practically as pure as the Virgin Mary, fall from his perch high atop his pedestal in Oxford? Arrogance, that's how.
Arrogance, you ask? Yes, arrogance.
After a disastrous 2010 season, the Ole Miss fan base fractured, and in the Summer of 2011, a group known as Forward Rebels was born. This group took out full page ads in newspapers across the state and in Memphis, noting that The Ole Miss Administration is the problem. The Forward Rebels agenda was to get AD Pete Boone to do what they wanted, or to get him replaced. The message was clear, Forward Rebels wanted to win, and win big now, not just field competitive teams. The back to back New Years Day bowl wins from 2008-2009 were a distant memory. Arrogance.
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By November of 2011, AD Pete Boone retired and head coach Houston Nutt resigned as head coach, and a committee was formed to find a new head coach. Forward Rebels apparently had someone's undivided attention. Archie Manning and Fed Ex executive Mike Glenn co-chaired the selection committee. On December 6th, 2011, The Bleacher Report published an article, Ole Miss Football 2011: With Hugh Freeze Hire, Archie Manning Chooses Sides. Some excerpts from that article:
No matter the failures of the last few decades, the powers that be inside The Lyceum had recognized their limitations and had committed to not just helping Ole Miss football recover from the implosion of the Houston Nutt Era, they were calling to arms Rebel Nation, pledging a crusade to recapture the glory of a past long since seen, though hardly forgotten.
The decision was made - win and win now, no matter what the cost may be. Arrogance.
The double-secret-to-the-pain-of-death nature with which the search committee protected its actions made news by itself. There were no leaks from either Manning or his co-chair, Fed Ex executive Mike Glenn, no gauging the temperature on prospective coaches, no off-the-record-wink-nudge details that found their way into either digital or paper print.
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The committee's silence and absolute control of information created a vacuum - an empty space filled not just with the absurdity of Internet message boards or regional radio talk shows and their "sources," but that also allowed for interest to be shown - and then publicly debated - by what should have been legitimate candidates like Mike Leach or Rich Rodriguez.
Absolute control of information - the message - #TheNarrative was born. You will know what we want you to know, when and if we want you to know it. Arrogance.
When asked at Freeze's introductory press conference who else was interviewed for the position, Glenn claimed a confidentiality agreement between parties prevented him from revealing who was interviewed.
He was absolutely right in that assertion.
When a follow-up question asked how many candidates were interviewed, Glenn claimed the same agreement.
No way should he get a pass on that.
Any athletic program worth its salt should protect the names of interviewees to guard them - and the program - from tangential storylines. But for a person in charge of a search that resulted in the hire of - at least on paper - a suspect candidate, to avoid divulging the total number of candidates interviewed is contemptible.
The mindset was clearly to control the message, without exception. Arrogance.
Hugh Freeze worked tirelessly to promote himself as a virtuous man, a dedicated Christian, a family man. Apparently Freeze subscribed to the Vladimir Lenin philosophy that a lie told often enough becomes the truth. Arrogance.
After managing to win six games and become bowl eligible in 2012, presumably Forward Rebels and the entire administration at Ole Miss dove head first "all-in" with the coaching staff. This ushered in the infamous 2013 recruiting class, featuring ESPN's #1 player in the nation, Robert Nkemdiche, #1 rated OL Laremy Tunsil, and #1 rated WR Laquon Treadwell, all of whom were out of state recruits. Tunsil, a Georgia commit, and Treadwell had no ties to Ole Miss. The evil Houston Nutt had planted a seed by signing Nkemdiche's younger brother Denzel, which may have helped with recruiting Robert Nkemdiche. These three could have gone to any college they wanted to, but they all ended up at Ole Miss, who had just struggled to become bowl eligible in 2012. A tweet from Laquon Treadwell offered some insight as to why he liked Oxford. Surely these were Ole Miss co-eds escorting Treadwell, right?
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That 2013 recruiting class garnered national attention, and not in a good way. How exactly did Ole Miss, a team that had won a combined 12 games in the previous three seasons, land a top 5 recruiting class? Rumors were everywhere, social media, message boards, and Freeze absolutely did not like the negative attention. Assuming he and #TheNetwork had sufficiently covered their tracks, Freeze sent out a tweet and challenged the world. Arrogance.
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The world listened, and Ole Miss compliance was bombarded with 85 emails containing information about violations. Clarion Ledger Ole Miss beat writer Riley Blevins had asked a few questions, and was promptly shown the exit door from Ole Miss, Mississippi and his profession, which sent warning shots over the heads of any other reporter who dare challenged #TheNarrative. Arrogance.
The only reporter that would dare touch this was Kyle Veazey of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Veazey submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to Ole Miss, requesting the 85 emails, which are considered legally as public records. Ole Miss sent Veazey 54 of the emails, but withheld 31 of them. Control the message. Media assimilate or you are the next Riley Blevins. Arrogance.
For the next three seasons, Ole Miss and Freeze charged ahead, all in, despite an ongoing NCAA investigation. In January of 2016, days before National Signing Day, an official holiday in Oxford, Ole Miss was formally charged by the NCAA in a Notice of Allegations. The 2016 signing class was in jeopardy, so Ole Miss and Freeze doubled down by telling numerous media outlets that most of the allegations were either related to Women's basketball or track. Of those related to football, they occurred under the previous coach Houston Nutt. Freeze had the arrogance to lie in the face of recruits. In the words of then recruit Deontay Anderson "he (Freeze) said it was about things that had happened in the past before he got to Ole Miss"
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For five years, the SEC had to endure the Cult of Freeze, defending him blindly without exception. In state media, either coerced by the treatment of Riley Blevins, or complicit with Ole Miss and Freeze, largely ignored the story, and would not investigate. Despite a second NOA of the NCAA in 2017, Ole Miss and Freeze continued marching forward, sticking to party lines. #TheNarrative began to unravel with the second NOA. Houston Nutt asked the school to apologize for blaming him for Freeze's NCAA issues, and the school refused. Nutt noted in one radio interview that "my name appears zero times in their NOA". The arrogance continued.
At the 2017 SEC Media Days, all of that would change. The day Freeze was set to appear, Nutt filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that Ole Miss had violated the terms of his contract when they threw him under the bus. Freeze told Paul Finebaum that he did not know anything about the lawsuit. Trying to avoid questions, Freeze filibustered endlessly trying to chew up his time at the podium. Freeze goes on to tell reporters that he would love to talk about the Nutt lawsuit, but he cannot, absolutely contradicting what he had just told Paul Finebaum minutes earlier. Arrogance.
Nutt's lawsuit alleges that Ole Miss and Hugh Freeze went on a full court press just before national signing day, purposefully leaking a false narrative to intentionally blame Nutt. Phone records apparently indicate this. Outkick the Coverage writer Clay Travis noted, Ole Miss will settle this before further damage can be done. #TheNarrative completely unraveled.
Things would change dramatically when it was discovered that Hugh Freeze had called an escort service on his university issued cell phone. Ole Miss, whom had been in lock step with Freeze fighting the NCAA, abruptly gave Freeze the option to resign or be fired. AD Ross Bjork would go on to say that there was a disturbing pattern discovered after reviewing Freeze's phone records. In the NOA, lack of institutional control and failure to monitor appear. It appears Ole Miss opted to sacrifice Freeze before additional damage could be done.
Ole Miss had refused to publish the names of boosters named in the NCAA NOA, some of which have been disassociated from the University. That will change on Friday, as the Mississippi Ethics Commission has forced Ole Miss to release the documents with the booster names no redacted. #TheNetwork will be exposed.
Arrogance U will have its day with the Committee on Infractions later this year. Based upon previous behavior, Ole Miss will try to say they cut ties with Freeze and they should not be punished. The NCAA will absolutely not accept that for an answer, as Ole Miss has completely argued that Freeze was such a fine, outstanding moral man, and this was all simply mistakes.
Had Ole Miss and Freeze issued apologies to Houston Nutt, odds are Freeze is still the head coach today. The very arrogance they have ridden with building Hugh Freeze up for five years has led to their downfall.
