Always could

Posted on: February 4, 2023 at 10:53:37 CT

Scandals and resignation
In January 2016, the NCAA charged Ole Miss with numerous recruiting violations. An investigation turned up evidence that Ole Miss employees and boosters arranged numerous "impermissible benefits" for players, such as car loans and cash. At least one recruit was suspected of getting help on his college entrance exam.[29] Ole Miss officials began calling reporters, telling them falsely that most of the alleged violations had taken place under Freeze's predecessor Houston Nutt.[30]

The investigation reopened soon after star offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil admitted taking money from one of Freeze's assistants.[31] In February 2017—three months after suffering its first losing season since the year Freeze arrived—Ole Miss withdrew from bowl consideration for the upcoming season. The move came on the same day that the NCAA sent an updated notice of allegations charging the Rebels with eight additional violations. Most seriously, it accused Freeze of not monitoring his assistants, and also accused Ole Miss of not properly controlling the program.[29] The new allegations brought the total to 21: four under Nutt and 17 under Freeze.[32]

Freeze continued to recruit players during the investigation. Six Ole Miss players, including star quarterback Shea Patterson and future NFL players Van Jefferson and Tre Nixon, later said Freeze and other Ole Miss officials repeatedly lied to them during their recruitment about the severity of the pending charges. After the charges became public, these players sought to transfer to other schools; each requested and received a waiver to the NCAA rule that would have prevented them from playing for a year.[6][33][34]

On July 13, 2017, Nutt sued Ole Miss for defamation, contending that Freeze and school officials had "conspired to smear him" with false claims about the charges.[35][36] On October 16, 2017, Ole Miss settled the lawsuit and issued a public apology to Nutt.[5][37]

As part of discovery for the lawsuit, Nutt's attorneys filed a freedom-of-information request for calls Freeze made on his university-issued cell phone during January 2016. While reviewing those records, Nutt's attorneys discovered a call to a number associated with a female escort service, and alerted Ole Miss officials about it. Freeze claimed it was a misdialed number.[38] School officials investigated, and discovered what they later described as "a concerning pattern" of similar calls dating back to shortly after he arrived in Oxford:[39] at least a dozen calls over 33 months,[7][8] often made while Freeze was traveling on business trips using Ole Miss' private plane.[26] On July 20, 2017, chancellor Jeff Vitter and athletic director Ross Bjork gave Freeze an ultimatum: resign or be fired for violating the morals clause of his contract. Freeze opted to resign; offensive coordinator Matt Luke was named interim coach.[8]

In February 2019, the NCAA punished the Ole Miss football team for the recruiting and academic violations committed under both Nutt and Freeze. "The panel found the involved head coach [Freeze] failed to monitor the program, allowing his staff to knowingly commit a series of recruiting violations, submit false information on recruiting paperwork and not report known violations," an NCAA statement said.[40] The punishments included a two-year postseason ban, three years of probation, and a four-year ban on some scholarships. As well, the NCAA forced Ole Miss to vacate 33 wins from 2010 to 2016. As a result, 27 of Freeze's wins were stripped from the books; only the 2015 season was unaffected. His record at Ole Miss is now officially 12–25; it was 39–25 on the field.[4]