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Ole Miss Football: Sanctions won’t slow down Hugh Freeze, Rebels

By Hunter Kinniburgh

Nov 28, 2015; Starkville, MS, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Hugh Freeze walks through warm ups before the game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Davis Wade Stadium Mississippi won 38-27.. Mandatory Credit: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 28, 2015; Starkville, MS, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Hugh Freeze walks through warm ups before the game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Davis Wade Stadium Mississippi won 38-27.. Mandatory Credit: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports /
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The current perception of Ole Miss is that of a dirty program that got caught. Make no mistake, that is not the whole truth here. 

Since February 2013, when Ole Miss hauled in No. 1 recruit Robert Nkemdiche, No. 1 offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil and No. 1 receiver Laquon Treadwell, there have been people who believed Ole Miss and head coach Hugh Freeze had to be cheating.

There was no way that Ole Miss could land such top recruits, three of which were outside the state of Mississippi.

With the Ole Miss athletic department issuing their response to the Notice of Allegations from the NCAA last Friday, the allegations from the NCAA investigation came into public notice. Or did they? Most of these allegations were already known about. Tunsil and his involvement with keeping a loaner car too long

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Most of these allegations were already known. Tunsil and his involvement with keeping a loaner car too long were known about last fall. Same as the actions by former Ole Miss assistant coach David Saunders and his involvement in falsifying ACT exams at Ole Miss and ULL.

What mostly came to light were recruiting allegations against Chris Kiffin and Maurice Harris. Kiffin provided two nights lodging at his house which totaled a $66 value, which is silly to be quite honest.

Silly for it to have happened but even more ridiculous that the NCAA figured out how much that would have cost. Maurice Harris is alleged to have put a recruits family in contact with a booster, this is a Level 1 offense so no one is taking it lightly.

Most of the other allegations against coaches deal with telephone conversations or face to face contact that was not allowed to happen during certain periods of the recruiting process. All programs deal with these types of incidents almost every year, hence why they are minor. The dollar amount valued by the NCAA of all the different allegations is $14,055.

What all of this amounts to is a perception problem at Ole Miss. The perception is that Ole Miss paid athletes to play for Ole Miss. In the Notice of Allegations, there are no allegations about pay for play at Ole Miss, not one. Yet there will remain the perception, mostly by rival schools that Ole Miss is everything but clean.

Look at it this way, if Ole Miss could buy three All-American recruits for $14,055 then Ole Miss got the deal of the century in college football. This is not to make light of the situation, there are serious Level 1 allegations in the NOA but none point to pay for play and none is seriously crippling to the football program in the form of the death penalty or even what happened to Penn State or USC in recent years.

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The investigation into Tunsil’s draft night text hack is still open and has yet to be resolved. Yet I have a hard time believing the NCAA snooped around Oxford, Mississippi for four years and never knew about those texts.

Freeze will continue to lead Ole Miss and he will continue to be respected in the college football community. None of these allegations are damaging to him as a person or a coach.

Sure, mistakes happened and there are self-imposed sanctions by Ole Miss to deal with that; including scholarship reductions, removal of coaches from recruiting visits, restrictions on unofficial and official visits it all has already been imposed by the school itself.

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Ole Miss has taken this seriously and they will continue to take it seriously. Ole Miss, however, is going to survive and continue to be nationally relevant whether people like it or not.

For more Ole Miss coverage, you can check out our SEC hub page.

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