The No. 12 cornerback in the country, four-star Chevin Calloway (5’10, 180 pounds, Dallas, Texas), is competing in the upcoming Under Armour All-American game, which kicks off on Jan. 1. One of the schools recruiting him is Ole Miss.
Recruit says Hugh Freeze has an interesting way to describe Ole Miss’ NCAA troubles
There’s one way to put it.
Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
The Rebels have been investigated by the NCAA for years for potential recruiting violations, going back to the coaching staff prior to Hugh Freeze. The whole thing found new life after first-rounder Laremy Tunsil appeared to admit to taking money from coaches. We learned in August that the NCAA asked players of the Rebels’ SEC West rivals to snitch on Ole Miss recruiting.
Calloway told reporters during the Under Armour Combine Media Day earlier this week about how Freeze is describing the investigation with recruits.
Q: We’ve heard a lot about negative recruiting at Ole Miss with the NCAA thing going on, what has Ole Miss said to you about that?
“Well, Coach Freeze told me when you’re that big and out there with faith in Christ, he’s like, ‘What do you expect? Jesus got nailed to the cross.’ So, he was just telling me sometimes things like that happen, but that’s never going to change how he’s going to treat his players and take care of them. Even if — I don’t know if he really did make the mistake, doing what he did or not — but I can just tell he’s a good person, great person. I know they’re looking at maybe a bowl suspension [for 2017]. I don’t know what they’re gonna do. But I don’t think that’ll affect anything as far as how he treats his players and stuff like that.”
Calloway was asked about how the investigation affects his decision.
“That’s one thing I thought about because I’m like, maybe NFL coaches may look at that and be like, ‘I don’t really wanna mess with them right now.’ That’s something I have thought about, but at the end of the day, that’s life. People are gonna be faced with adversity at times. It’s just [about] how you respond to it.”
Per 247Sports’ Crystal Ball predictions, analysts believe Calloway has an 89 percent chance to end up with Arkansas. He has family in the Natural State, and is from there. Texas is also pursuing him hard, following the coaching transition from Charlie Strong to Tom Herman. He maintains that there is no order to his top three of the Razorbacks, Longhorns, and Rebels.
Although there has yet to be a final punishment from the NCAA, the investigation has been a topic of discussion surrounding Ole Miss’ recruiting, especially Freeze’s top-10 class in 2013. The Rebels’ 2017 class currently ranks 48th in the nation, 13th in the SEC, and has just 13 verbal commits.
Back in May, Ole Miss self-imposed sanctions.
The program will dock itself 10 football scholarships over the next three seasons (two in 2016, and four each in 2017 and 2018), plus one it’s counting from the 2015 season. It also self-imposes a $159,352 fine, and “involved staff” will undergo “additional rules education” on NCAA policy.
In response to the reaction to the above quote, Calloway tweeted the following:
