Hugh Freeze to Liberty proves once again football is above all

After a year and a half away from the game, embattled former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze is back in college football after being hired as the next head coach at Liberty.

It was only a matter of time before Hugh Freeze would make his way back into the college game, and now he has his opportunity by finding the “perfect” landing spot at Liberty University, which hired Freeze on Friday to replace the retired Turner Gill.

Freeze had a number of opportunities to return to college football, mostly with numerous schools being interested in him as an offensive coordinator, but it was clear that Freeze wanted a head coaching gig, particularly at a school where he could play up his faux-evangelism. Liberty provides the opportunity for both of those things.

Powerful men have throughout history retreated to faith to excuse reprehensible behavior. Freeze has done the same since stepping down as Ole Miss’ head coach in July of 2017 amid a personal misconduct scandal revolving around a pattern of phone calls to an escort service from a university issued cell phone throughout his tenure in Oxford.

A myriad of NCAA violations also accompanied Freeze’s time with the Rebels, and Ole Miss just served the second year of a bowl ban as a result of a lack of institutional control. Freeze’s involvement was noteworthy, and he would have served a two-game suspension at whichever school hired him for the 2017 or 2018 seasons – he’ll head to Liberty penalty free.

Liberty University continues to ignore character concerns with their athletic department hires, as they have proven once again in completely ignoring the stated mission of the university.

In their own mission statement, Liberty says in regards to the type of people the university seeks to employ and the students it wishes to attract:

“Persons are spiritual, rational, moral, social and physical, created in the image of God. They are, therefore, able to know and value themselves and other persons, the universe, and God.”

And yet the university hired Hugh Freeze, without concern for the hypocritical nature of the move.

Of course, that shouldn’t be a surprise, considering the university hired former Baylor AD Ian McCaw to the same role in November of 2016. Just six months earlier, McCaw had resigned in shame amid the rampant sexual-assault scandal that Waco.

The moral aspect of the mission statement obviously doesn’t apply to the athletic department, particularly the football program. Football trumps all, the sacrosanct nature of the sport consistently overshadowing any fiber of moral decency.

Liberty is in the midst of a transition to the FBS level. They spent two seasons as a provisional FBS member, and will now be a full-fledged member in 2019, with the opportunity for bowl eligibility for the first time in program history.

It’s this that was the impetus for the hiring of McCaw, an athletic director with a proven track-record, to guide the transition to the FBS, a transition that will surely generate increased revenue for the athletic department, which of course is the real reasoning behind these sorts of things.

Money and greed outshines morality and creed, regardless of what a university purports to stand for.

Freeze’s talent overshadows his personal shortcomings. There’s no denying Freeze’s ability as a football coach. He has been successful at all of his coaching stops, from Lambuth to Arkansas State to Ole Miss.

In particular, his ability to lead Ole Miss to unprecedented heights, the back-to-back New Year’s Six appearances and consecutive triumphs over Nick Saban significantly raised his profile, meaning he was never going to be fully ostracized from the game.

If Liberty didn’t hire Hugh Freeze someone was going to. Nick Saban tried to do it last year but was blocked by the SEC. Auburn, Florida State, and Tennessee all showed interest during this cycle of bringing him aboard as their offensive coordinator.

In a sport ripe with greed, being good at the job far outweighs repugnant character flaws. Guys like Freeze will always find their way back to coaching, and if he finds success at Liberty, it will only be a matter of time before a power-five program tabs Freeze to take over their program again.

Liberty was the perfect fit for Freeze, with their faux-moral fiber and hypocrisy perfectly aligning to resurrect a career and a program.