How Ole Miss landed it's historic recruiting class
The article is from February 7th, 2013. Here are some of the Highlights:
-As he sat at the great round table planted in the middle of his octagonal War Room on the eve of a shockingly successful National Signing Day, Hugh Freeze raised his hand above his eyes to indicate a level. When he gets excited or agitated, Freeze can thunder like a revival preacher at full throat. The rumors certainly had him agitated. "I'm so irritated right now, so forgive me," the Ole Miss football coach said. "I've taken it about up to here with all the media and the Twitters and everybody."
Angry Beaver!
-The outside assumption? If an SEC program that won one conference game in two years before Freeze showed up can suddenly draw some of the best players in the country, it must be cheating. Heck, when the job was open following the firing of Houston Nutt, some snarky writer applied for the job and penned a mock cover letter that suggested a coach could win consistently at Ole Miss only by shattering all of the NCAA's rules. Who was that writer? Me.
Spot on there, Mr. Staples.
-Freeze flatly denies any NCAA malfeasance. He insists he and his staff had a plan and executed it with the aid of some good fortune. In fact, it wasn't so much of a plan as an all-in recruiting gamble.
#ALLIN #LIAR
-On Wednesday, ESPN analysts talked so much about the Rebels that athletic director Ross Bjork called the day "a 12-hour commercial for Ole Miss football." Even LeBron James noticed, and when he did, Ole Miss assistants gathered around the War Room round table screamed "Retweet!" in unison.
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-Freeze swears all those who whisper of wrongdoing are liars. "They have no clue that there's a plan -- and we have some luck," Freeze said. "I say it's God's favor, we had a really good plan, we're selling a really good vision and we have some luck."
So basically he swears that anyone that questions him is a liar, while he is lying... Also, apparently God and luck helped them land all those 5 stars.
-Ole Miss probably doesn't sign Nkemdiche, a 6-5, 260-pounder from Loganville, Ga., if Grayson High coach Mickey Conn hadn't pitched former Ole Miss offensive line coach Mike Markuson on a ball-hawking safety with a few academic issues in 2010. The player was Denzel Nkemdiche, the son of Nigerian immigrants. Other SEC programs had shied away because of his size and the strong probability that his next step after graduation would be junior college. Nutt's staff pursued Denzel anyway, and the persistence paid off. More than four months after National Signing Day 2011, Denzel learned he had made a qualifying score on the SAT. He signed scholarship papers with Ole Miss.
Hmmm.... I wonder how he magically got a qualifying SAT score 4 months after signing day? Our boy David Saunders was there until late Decemeber of 2010.
-Usually, the Champion is mama. "Regardless of what anyone says," McGriff said, "a kid is never going to disappoint his mother." This would become a theme in the pursuit of the class of 2013, and it would be absolutely crucial in the pursuit of Treadwell.
I wonder why momma Treadwell wanted her son to go to a 7-6 school 10 hours away?
-During their attempts to flip him, Ole Miss coaches had won over (Chris) Jones and his father. His mother remained steadfastly in Mississippi State's camp. Freeze entered the War Room shaking his head. "Chris Jones?" Freeze said. "Mom's going to win that deal." Once again, Wes McGriff's prophecy proved true. In most recruitments, mama is the Champion.
I wonder why daddy wanted Chris to go to OM?
-Athletic director Bjork had watched the Nkemdiche announcement with his coaches. Shortly after, he stood to leave. "Time to go raise some money," Bjork said. "We just made your job easier," (Barney) Farrar quipped.
Such an ironic exchange there, because actually they made Bjork's job a lot harder, and cost Barney his.
