Why Freeze won’t be the Vols’ coach
Hugh Freeze need not apply for Tennessee's football coach opening.
He's not the type of candidate UT System President Randy Boyd wants in charge of the Vols' most visible program.
Though Boyd did not specifically mention Freeze by name, he made clear during an exclusive interview with Knox News on Tuesday that a candidate's record of integrity will be a requirement for the job.
“You don't clean house of a bunch of people who aren't following compliance and go out and get other people that don't seem to have a record of following compliance,” Boyd told Knox News. That leaves Freeze out.
When asked specifically about Freeze, Boyd reiterated his stance, without addressing Freeze by name.
“I would just say that somebody's integrity and their history of integrity will be a key criteria,” Boyd said.
Tennessee fired coach Jeremy Pruitt for cause Monday, citing an investigation that revealed sweeping violations within the football program. Chancellor Donde Plowman called the investigation's findings "stunning," based on the amount of violations and number of people involved.
Athletics director Phillip Fulmer will not hire Pruitt's replacement. Fulmer will step down after Tennessee finishes a search for his successor, who will hire the new football coach.
Freeze has been the favorite of a vocal portion of the Vols' fan base since well before the job opened.
If Plowman was considering on-field performance alone, Freeze would be worth consideration. The former Mississippi coach, now at Liberty, has been a winner at multiple stops. In two seasons at Liberty, Freeze has an 18-6 record and two bowl wins, and the Flames finished 10-1 this season.
But Freeze resigned from Ole Miss in July 2017 amid scandal after it was revealed he had made calls to escorts. Had Freeze not resigned, Ole Miss would have fired him “for moral turpitude,” then-rebels athletics director Ross Bjork said at the time, after the university found “a pattern” of “troubling” conduct on Freeze's university-issued cellphone.
Also in 2017, Ole Miss was hit with NCAA sanctions after allegations of 21 violations tied to a years-long recruiting scandal, the majority of which occurred under Freeze's watch.
The NCAA said in a 2017 report on the
infractions case that Freeze "fell short of his monitoring responsibilities when members of his staff committed intentional violations and deliberately involved boosters in the recruitment of prized prospects."
The report said that Freeze's staff “knowingly committed recruiting violations,” falsified information and failed to report violations.
“The head coach did not exercise sufficient oversight into what the staff members were doing,” the NCAA report said.
Tennessee expects multiple NCAA Level I and II violations to result from the recruiting malfeasance it says occurred
under Pruitt's watch.
“Your failures are likely to lead to significant penalties to the university and has jeopardized the eligibility of our student athletes,” Pruitt's termination letter, signed by Plowman and Fulmer, said.
Pruitt was among 10 people within the football program fired for cause Monday. The others fired were assistant coaches Brian Niedermeyer and Shelton Felton and seven staff members who worked in recruiting, player personnel or quality control.
“We want somebody of integrity,” Boyd told Knox News. “We just made changes because of a compliance issue.
We're not going to bring somebody in that has compliance issues. That would be pretty (hypocritical).”
Freeze is a proven winner, having elevated Mississippi to national prominence before his tenure ended because of off-the-field disgrace. He led Ole Miss to a winning record in four of his five seasons, including a 10-win season in 2015. Freeze has two victories against Nick Saban's Alabama teams, a rare feat.
The 51-year-old Mississippi native has ties to Tennessee. His first coaching job was at Briarcrest Christian near Memphis.