Hugh Freeze resigning from Ole Miss amid reports of call to escort service

Hugh Freeze has resigned as Ole Miss head coach, the school announced Thursday night.

Three sources confirmed to SB Nation’s Steven Godfrey that Freeze was asked to resign.

USA Today and Yahoo! reported that a phone number connected to Freeze made a call to an escort service in Florida.

A one-minute call made from the University-issued phone of Ole Miss football coach Hugh Freeze to a number associated with a female escort service was raised as a potential issue in the back-and-forth between the university’s legal counsel and the attorney for former Rebels football coach Houston Nutt, according to records and correspondence obtained by USA TODAY Sports.

(Nutt, of course, was fired by Arkansas a decade ago amid a phone records debacle of his own.)

Freeze had and used a second non-university phone, paid for privately, a source told Godfrey.

Multiple sources confirm to SB Nation that, as of Thursday, no new developments had occurred in the NCAA’s investigation into Ole Miss.

Lately, Freeze’s tenure has had little to do with what has happened on the field, due to the pending investigation. Ole Miss recently defended Freeze against a spate of NCAA allegations.

Freeze told Yahoo! this when contacted for a response.

“I’ve got no idea, to be honest,” Freeze said. “I was in an 813 area code and that was a 313 number, I think that might have been a misdial. I don’t think there was even a conversation. There’s nothing to it.”

As far as Matt Luke is concerned, multiple sources told SB Nation that he entertained an offer from South Carolina to take the vacant OL position in the offseason. Ole Miss officials retained Luke with an aggressive offer specifically as a fallback interim coach if Freeze didn’t survive.

Their backup plan is now kicked into gear.