Rebels hope party is just starting in Oxford
Two facts about Ole Miss: It claims to always win the party, and Hugh Freeze was the interim head coach at Ole Miss for three days before Houston Nutt was hired to lead the Rebels.
That Freeze wasn’t hired by Nutt to be offensive coordinator wasn’t a surprise, and eventually it led to him becoming the very popular head coach of the Rebels. Freeze, a hurry- up, no- huddle advocate, had about as much of a chance of being hired by Nutt as there was of Gus Malzahn applying for the job.
Freeze’s rise to the SEC and coaching the team that controls its own destiny in the Western Division championship race is something to behold.
Just a dozen years ago he was coaching the Briarcrest Christian High School football and girls basketball teams in Memphis. He actually had a better record coaching basketball, with a .829 winning percentage compared to .785 in football.
The book The Blind Side, and the movie based off it by the same name, was based on the childhood of NFL lineman Michael Oher. Oher was adopted as a teenager by Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy, who placed him at Briarcrest. They hired a tutor to help him academically, and Oher eventually became a national recruit and signed with Ole Miss.
The NCAA took at look at Oher’s recruiting because the Tuohys were graduates of Ole Miss. The NCAA also was interested because Freeze was hired as assistant athletic director for external affairs by Ole Miss 20 days after Oher’s signing.
Apparently everything was fine, and Oher went on to star for the Rebels before being a first- round draft pick of the Baltimore Ravens.
At the end of Oher’s junior season, when the Rebels went 0- 8 in SEC play, something that hadn’t happened since 1982, Ed Orgeron was fired as the Rebels coach and Nutt was hired three days later.
Then began the road that eventually led Freeze back to Oxford as the head coach. It started at Lambuth College, where he was 20- 5, which led to Freeze being hired as the offensive coordinator at Arkansas State, where he eventually became head coach and went 10- 2 in his lone season.
Ole Miss went 4- 8 ( 1- 7 SEC) in 2010 and 2- 10 ( 0- 8 SEC) in 2011, which led to Nutt’s contract being bought out. Then Freeze, a native of Mississippi, saw his dream come true when he was hired replace Nutt as Ole Miss’ head coach.
After quickly assembling a staff, the first thing Freeze did was start recruiting. But with such a small window — about two months — his first class only ranked 40th.
His next class was an eye- opener. It ranked seventh in the nation and included the only five- star players he has signed at Ole Miss. All three are big- time starters for the Rebels and are projected as first- round NFL picks next summer.
It wasn’t exactly like Freeze built a fence around Mississippi. Defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche came from Georgia, wide receiver Laquon Treadwell is from Illinois and offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil is from Florida.
Freeze went 7- 6 overall and 3- 5 in the SEC in his first season, but once he got that second recruiting class on campus he has been 24- 11, including 7- 2 overall this season and 4- 1 in SEC play.
Which is why there isn’t much chance of the Rebels overlooking the Hogs on Saturday in Oxford. Granted it is their 10th consecutive game and they have to be a little weary and nicked up, but if they win out they will represent the Western Division in the SEC Championship Game. That most likely would be a rematch with Florida, who handed the Rebels their only SEC loss, 38- 10. Their other loss was 37- 24 to Memphis.
The question is if Ole Miss wins out, including the SEC Championship Game, would a two- loss SEC team make the College Football Playoffs?
Probably not, but winning the SEC outright has been the Rebels’ goal for a year, and they won’t look past the Razorbacks.
They are looking to win the party and the game.