Looking forward
Freeze, NCAA allegations hang over Ole Miss
The Ole Miss faithful, reeling from Hugh Freeze’s resignation July 20, are eager to turn the page,
The old gray lady, better known as Vaught-Hemingway Stadium where Mississippi has played football since 1915, is up and stirring after a long, restless offseason.
She’s trying to get her house in order for the Sept. 2 opener against South Alabama.
Workers installed new red seats in the west side, chair-back section Thursday afternoon, the whining of power tools the only sound piercing a rare summer breeze.
She still has to fix her face. The lush green grass remains without yard-line markings and end-zone paint.
Forgive her if she’s sluggish or distracted. Last time she threw a party, two days after Thanksgiving, 66,038 people attended. Mississippi State crashed it with 55 points and regained possession of this state’s most precious jewel, the Egg Bowl trophy.
She was certain the NCAA’s accusations that Ole Miss broke recruiting rules would be settled, one way or another, by now. But the case still hangs over Oxford like a paper-mill stench.
And she was shaken to her core upon hearing the news July 20 that coach Hugh Freeze was forced to resign for what school officials termed a “concerning pattern” of behavior after his phone records revealed a call to an escort service.
Freeze won 39 games in five seasons. Just 18 months ago, he led the Rebels to their first Sugar Bowl victory in 46 years and had made the program nationally relevant again. Earlier in the 2015 season, Freeze became one of only three active coaches to defeat Alabama’s Nick Saban twice.
The old lady hasn’t been this sad since Arkansas beat Ole Miss in overtime 53-52 on Nov. 7, 2015, with the help of a bizarre fourthand-25 conversion. It cost the Rebels a spot in the Southeastern Conference championship game.
NO LAUGHING MATTER
Kyle Cole, 35, is a campus minister at Ole Miss and a senior staff member with Campus Crusade for Christ International. He joined a friend a few days ago to minister to inmates at a maximum security prison in Kansas.
“All of these guys are serving life sentences,” Cole said. “I was wearing an Ole Miss T-shirt, and they started making fun of me. They were like, ‘ Wow, what’s going on down there?’ As we were leaving, I told my friend, ‘You know it’s bad when folks who are in prison for the rest of their lives are laughing about your circumstances.’ ”
It’s not a laughing matter to Cole, whose wife, Amy, also works as a campus minister at Ole Miss. He was born in July 1982 and attended his first game at VaughtHemingway two months later. In 2006, he and Amy were married in The Grove — a 10-acre area in the middle of the campus that turns into a tailgating mecca on game days.
“Everybody from my granddad on down is at the (home) games every Saturday in the fall,” Cole said. “My wife and I don’t have a boat or hunting land. What we do have is the Rebels, no matter how good or bad they play. That’s what we plan on for entertainment every fall.”
Since the night of July 20, when Freeze resigned, Cole has addressed questions from students about how such a thing could have happened to a man who talked openly about his faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.
“This situation has been an at- tack on Christianity in a lot of ways,” Cole said. “People don’t know what to believe about a person anymore. I’ve been doing campus ministry for 12 years. I’ve seen men fall in a lot of different ways.”
Cole said the season can’t get here fast enough.
“It’ll be nice to watch games and talk about football instead of everything else going on,” he said. “I think it’ll be an interesting season because it’s such a unique circumstance.
“Sometimes you don’t really know why guys are wearing a certain uniform. But our players have shown that this is where they want to be, this is who they want to play with. I definitely have a deep respect for them. I admire them for staying.”
‘BETTER STORY WHEN TEAM WINS’
Griffin Tanner, 34, owns The Roundtable, a restaurant on the Oxford square, and The Levee/ Cellar, a nightclub. He graduated from Ole Miss in 2005 and ran track for the Rebels.
Tanner has chosen to ignore the preseason predictions that have Ole Miss finishing last in the SEC West Division.
“I’m a pretty positive guy, and I hope for the best,” he said. “From a business standpoint, we do better if the team is winning. Oxford is a football town. People love to enjoy victories. Back in 2014 when (ESPN’s) Gameday came to town and we beat Alabama, it was great for everyone in Oxford. I had friends who rented their homes for $2,000 on football weekends because you had people drinking the Kool-Aid.
“And if the team can get off to a decent start, things will be booming again.”
Scott Michael, 46, who owns Rooster’s Blues House on the square, is another life-long Ole Miss fan. He said Freeze’s resignation and the circumstances surrounding it “hit people down in the bottom of their gut.”
“But I sense the attitude turning a little more positive now,” he said. “Freeze was a great coach for us. But time marches on, and so does the program.
“Who knows? This could be one of those Cinderella teams that wins big when not many people expect them to.”
Two students from St. Louis, both juniors, admitted they were still stunned by the news regarding Freeze but said it doesn’t affect their outlook on the season.
“It doesn’t change my gameday experience,” said Addison Markham, 20. “As for the team, these players are here at this time for a reason. If they stay focused and try their best, they can win some games.”
Elle Hillier, 20, said the distractions “will just make for a better story when the team wins … and I really think they can.”
Carson Gilstrap, a 21-year-old junior who graduated from Madison-Ridgeland Academy, is a Rebel in more ways than one.
One of his favorite players of all time is former Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott.
“I used to bleed maroon and white,” he says, referring to State’s colors. “My whole family does. So they were pretty shocked when I chose to come to Ole Miss.”
Gilstrap gets antsy when the Sept. 2 season opener is mentioned.
“I am gonna be amped,” he said. “We have good players, and I think they may come out with the attitude of, ‘We’ll show you.’ ”
‘MY COACH IS MATT LUKE’
A common theme has taken root in Oxford during the last week: It seems everyone is pulling for interim head coach Matt Luke to secure the job for years to come. That would mean, of course, the upcoming season turned out dandy.
“I’m thinking of stringing a banner across my building that says, ‘ My coach is Matt Luke,’ ” Michael said.
One would be hard pressed to find a coach with stronger Ole Miss ties. He started 33 games at center for the Rebels from 1995 to 1998. His brother, Tom, played quarterback here from 1989 to 1991. Their dad, Tommy, was a hard-hitting defensive back for Ole Miss during the 1960s.
He has paid his dues — 19 seasons as an assistant coach, nine of them at Ole Miss — and shed more than his share of blood, sweat and tears inside VaughtHemingway Stadium.
Certainly, Luke serving as Ole Miss’ head coach is enough to warm the cockles of the old gray lady’s heart.