Hugh Freeze continues SEC Media Days tradition of talkin’ scandals

The night before Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze’s turn at SEC Media Days, former coach Houston Nutt sued the program. Nutt’s alleging a smear campaign by Freeze and the Rebels, designed to blame Nutt for the school’s ongoing NCAA scandal (which implicates both staffs, though most of the serious allegations are against Freeze’s regime).

Before taking the podium, Freeze said he couldn’t comment on the complaint itself. Regarding the timing, he said it “seemed a bit ironic.”

“I keep waiting for the Media Day where I come here and we can just talk about our players,” he said outside the main ballroom. “For whatever reason, the journey we’ve been on — obviously, some our fault — has continued for a long time. This’ll be my sixth Media Day, if my memory’s right. Be the fifth time we’re talking about something other than our team.”

Speaking at the podium on Thursday, Freeze said in his opening statement that he would not answer any questions regarding the current NCAA investigation, but he did talk a bit about it.

Freeze’s first question of the day, unsurprisingly, was regarding the Nutt lawsuit.

“I would love to share my opinion on it, “ Nutt said. “But unfortunately it’s a legal case, so I can’t comment on it.”

So that’s the topic for 2017! Nothing like this has happened yet on Thursday this time around:

At 2016’s Media Days, Freeze’s program was not only amidst the existing NCAA mess, but had also seemingly been accused of paying Laremy Tunsil ... by Laremy Tunsil (this claim didn’t make the NCAA’s cut, but it did lead to more snooping). Freeze was asked about all that, as well as his 2013 tweet aimed at Ole Miss recruiting skeptics (“If you have facts about a violation, send it to compliance@olemiss.edu. If not, please do not slander these young men or insult their family”):

Sometimes you make decisions that probably aren’t the sharpest. Like I said earlier, I did mean that with sincerity. I really want everyone around our program and everyone within our program to do everything the right way. My parents raised me and Proverbs said a good name is to be desired above great riches.

And when things are that, and above that, I’ve kind of come to grips with the fact that my name -- I’m okay with people that make whatever decisions they make about me.

Obviously, I serve a God that I want to make his name great. And so it does bother me with that. And so that tweet was, you know -- the intent was, man, let’s find out what’s going on and look into it. Do I regret doing it? Absolutely.

In 2015, the Media Days topic: Tunsil’s stepfather had just attempted to snitch on the star lineman (and later spent a lot of time with the NCAA).

I can’t find much in the 2013 and 2014 transcripts that’d count as off-field distractions, other than a reference to Ole Miss’ surprising 2013 recruiting class, a series of questions about how Freeze’s daughter would rank the league’s head coaches, and a hard-hitting question about Freeze’s already-public biography (“Did you win four state high school girls basketball championships?”).

In 2012, his first SEC Media Days as head coach, he was asked about Steve Spurrier saying he’d rather get to play Ole Miss than have to play LSU (Freeze: “2013, they’re on our schedule. We will circle that date and maybe change his perspective” — I’m not sure what that’s about, since they haven’t played since 2009), some inherited academic troubles, and installing a brand-new offense as a first-time college head coach against a tough schedule. Nothing too rough.

So out of six Media Days, my count of the number of times the Rebels have had to deal with serious clouds of grave topics and Freeze’s differ, but that’s fine.