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Originally Posted by
shannondawg
Kellenberger: Ole Miss has only itself to blame for the Houston Nutt lawsuit
Hugh Kellenberger , The Clarion-Ledger Published 3:44 p.m. CT July 12, 2017 | Updated 5:50 p.m. CT July 12, 2017
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How much will the NCAA process affect Ole Miss' season?
The Rebels already know they are going to have a bowl ban this season, but there's the threat of the NCAA verdict coming down mid-season and even coach Hugh Freeze being suspended. Hugh Kellenberger and Antonio Morales talk about what all of that is going to do to the Rebels. Wochit
Be scared of the man who has nothing to lose, because sometimes he’ll tell the world you’re a liar who gets mad when people criticize you … a day before you have to talk to more than a thousand media members.
It’s easy to laugh at Houston Nutt filing a lawsuit against Ole Miss Wednesday — the guy who got fired for winning only two games with half of his team on the verge of academic probation is upset he didn’t get another job? That's a rolling eye emoji + money sign text response if I've ever seen one.
But remember that Nutt was only 55 when he left Oxford in 2011. He had won a lot of games for a lot of years. He knew it didn’t work out at Ole Miss, but he said repeatedly on his way out the door that he still felt like he had a lot to give.
It’s been six years though, and Nutt has never worked in college football again. Pretty much any job he has ever been connected to has started with him publicly saying he wants the gig, and even that has happened less and less the last couple of years.
I can tell you that it seems to me the game just left Houston Nutt behind at some point. He wasn’t getting the right recruits, both in talent and discipline, and his schemes were old-fashioned, even just as the hurry-up, no huddle era of college football was really getting started. And college football as a whole, even on the lower levels, has decided it’s more worthwhile to take a chance on the 34-year-old offensive coordinator than the 55-year-old failed SEC head coach. Take the upside, sacrifice “winning the press conference.”
But is that the whole reason Nutt works as an analyst for CBS Sports Network? Is it maybe at least a little bit about Ole Miss making a key part of its defense against the NCAA investigation that it was all Nutt’s fault?
That’s what the lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Oxford alleges, and there’s absolutely a case for defamation of character. Nutt’s name does not appear in the Notice of Allegations — either one. Hugh Freeze’s does. The vast majority of violations occurred after Freeze took control of the program, counter to Ole Miss’ claim for more than two years.
If this case ever went to court, that part is easy. Proving damages is harder, but is that even the game here?
Nutt clearly felt disrespected — he told as much to several outlets over the years — and reached a point where he had enough. Ole Miss thought it could place all the blame on him? Well, when you do that to a guy he sometimes has his lawyer file a lawsuit that says, “It is common knowledge among sports journalists that Coach Freeze does not take kindly to criticism” and claims you knowingly lied to sports journalists and prospects in order to have a good recruiting class. And he’ll do it a day before your head coach goes to SEC Media Days.
On Thursday, Freeze will have to take the podium in Hoover, Alabama amid another round of public ridicule for Ole Miss during this NCAA investigation. If it weren’t enough that Ole Miss missed a bowl game by getting blown out at home to its rival … if there wasn’t a coming NCAA judgment that threatens to level the program and cost Freeze his job … if an Ole Miss booster wasn’t also suing a pair of Mississippi State players … now you also have Nutt's lawyer putting some of Ole Miss’ business out on front street.
Be scared of the man who has nothing to lose, because sometimes he’ll find a way to get even.
Color me shocked that the CL actually published this. People have been High Freeze deniers since the beginning and finally the CL goes all truther.
In my opinion the fact that OM and Freeze defamed and slandered Houston Nutt is obvious. The only issue is whether and how much money it cost him. I suspect that OM will likely just settle and make this go away. If I'm HN (which I never would be) I demand a public apology from HF and the OM administration. That is the only thing that can truly make the situation right along with a boat load of cash.
Death penalty or bust!!!***
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