Hugh Freeze Named Next Ole Miss Head Coach

Harris is likely the second most important hire. He has Oxford experience and has coached throughout SEC West country.

Freeze had a few words to say of his own:

Freeze has led Arkansas State to its first-ever 10-win FBS season and its first-ever Sun Belt title. He doesn’t have much top-shelf experience, having worked two years at Ole Miss and otherwise at NAIA Lambuth and at a Tennessee high school. He’s scored a lot of points along the way, though.

Speaking of Ole Miss, you may best remember Freeze as Micheal Oher’s high school coach in The Blind Side.

Ole Miss reportedly tried the hard sell on Southern Mississippi head coach Larry Fedora, but may be turning its attention to Hugh Freeze. According to a report on Saturday night, Freeze is expected to meet with Ole Miss officials on Sunday, and will receive an offer to be the Rebels next head coach at that time. Freeze is expected to accept, though nothing is final yet.

The report comes from Rebel Grove and includes information about Ole Miss’ reported pursuit of Fedora.

According to the report, Smart has been “on the road recruiting all week with Nick Saban,” and goodness help the coach who takes time away from a recruiting trip while Nick Saban is around.

Soon, the entire SEC will be nothing but Saban disciples.

Kicking things off, Red Cup Rebellion (the first site to get a link out regarding Houston Nutt’s post-Egg Bowl firing, the day before it was announced) passed along the new rumor:

Skeptics were skeptical, since it came out of nowhere. A contrary report:

You might be able to make that the final two, if Oxford radio is on its game. The Reb Sports Radio Network reports Hudspeth has turned down Ole Miss after an interview, though the details -- his work history is an issue because it includes Mississippi State? -- sound too bizarre even for Ole Miss. The popular thinking there: if Dan Mullen goes to Penn State, former quarterbacks coach Hudspeth could accompany him.

Freeze, who’s also believed to have interviewed, has issued a non-denial rebuttal to the rumor circuit:

As Christmas shoppers around the country prepared for Cyber Monday, a few football programs decided to go shopping for a new football coach. Sunday alone, Illinois, Kansas, UAB and Memphis dumped their coaches and entered what is suddenly a bustling sellers’ market. Mike Leach can only take one job, people!

Let’s take a look at the programs that are hiring (or could be soon), along with some general program strength numbers.

Malzahn has been the favored acquisition of Ole Miss fans since before Houston Nutt was fired. He’d been loosely attached to the UNC job, but Ole Miss may be willing to pay more. Houston Nutt was making slightly more than Butch Davis was, but Malzahn’s price tag (he reportedly turned down a $3 million-per-year offer from Vanderbilt) could’ve put him out of the reach of the Heels’ football budget. Openly speculating all over the place.

For more on these schools, visit Ole Miss blog Red Cup Rebellion and UNC blog Carolina March.

Despite the fact that Houston Nutt was fired last week by Ole Miss as its head football coach, he will remain on through the season-ending Egg Bowl to see it through. However, the university will not stand pat on the administrative duties that exist within a college football program and has named wide receivers coach Gunter Brewer as the head of the “transition team” heading into the off-season.

This is Brewer’s first year with the school, however he has strong ties to the university. His father, Billy, was head coach of the football team from 1983-93 and remains an active onlooker at practices. Ole Miss hired Brewer as their associate head coach/passing game coordinator/wide receivers coach after six seasons as an assistant with the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Archie Manning is leading Ole Miss’ search for a new coach. You know where this is going: #Cooper4OleMiss. No, wait. The people want the other Manning brother:

↵↵

Via Red Cup Rebellion, which should be lauded for enduring an entire Ole Miss game:

↵

In today’s edition of wild, out of nowhere coaching rumors, Tony Dungy’s name was floated as a possible replacement for Houston Nutt at Ole Miss.

As a reminder, Dungy has been out of coaching since 2008 and has never coached at the college level. While there is a loose connection here -- Archie Manning is the father of Peyton Manning, who played under Dungy with the Colts -- there’s little more than that. He has no connections to the state, nor has he shown any indication he’s open to a return to coaching.

Leach is at least interested in just about every job, and has mentioned everything from North Carolina to UCLA as potential ports. Ole Miss, despite its large network of of forward-thinking sports fans, is very much an ole-boy school, as far as the power figures go. Leach will almost certainly find a better fit elsewhere, which isn’t really a criticism of either Leach or Ole Miss.

And, no, Dan Mullen isn’t going to leave the only university in the entire state of Mississippi to found a second one elsewhere in the state. But here’s a list of names you’ll hear.

The same list of coaches that always get listed everywhere: Chris Petersen, Gary Patterson, Urban Meyer, and Jon Gruden will not coach Ole Miss. Archie Manning has connections, but not that many.

Pete Boone’s third failed coaching tenure will officially be his last at the University of Mississippi. After an adversarial relationship with David Cutcliffe (the program’s most consistent coach in three decades) ended in a hast firing, and despite weathering the entirety of the Ed Orgeron debacle, the stunningly schizoid run of Houston Nutt at Ole Miss was given an official expiration date on Monday, and Boone along with it.

The Rebels fired their third football coach since 2004 on Monday. This time the administration’s trigger man, known to have had stilted relationships with all three men, overshadowed a head football coach’s dismissal. Ole Miss Chancellor Dan Jones announced that Boone would step down as athletic director, but would stay up until but not exceeding December 2012. The timetable move is assumed to appease fans frustrated with the overall malaise of the Rebels’ “Big Three” sports (a glut we outlined earlier today) while still standing tough against the “Forward Rebels” campaign that has dogged Jones and Boone through various newspaper ads and media outlets. Jones, still young in his tenure as Chancellor, likely wants to send a message that he won’t be bullied

Nutt commented on his impending exit:

Athletic director Pete Boone announced he’ll step down at some point within the next year, though the date for his resignation isn’t quite as clear.

Embattled University of Mississippi athletic director Pete Boone will step down along with head football coach Houston Nutt this afternoon.

Sources confirmed that Boone’s role in the search for Ole Miss’ next head coach as well as the rest of his duties will either be “reduced or eliminated entirely.” Boone has been athletic director at Ole Miss for 13 years, and with Nutt’s expected firing today, has overseen the dismissal of three head football coaches (David Cutcliffe, Ed Orgeron) since 2004.

Taken together, the story is that Nutt won’t coach Ole Miss beyond this season, and that the details will be made public Monday afternoon in Oxford. The job status of Boone isn’t quite so clear, but we’ve also reported that his job is in significant danger of its own.

Houston Nutt has been fired by the University of Mississippi as its head football coach, according to sources. Ole Miss will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. CT today to announce that Nutt will step down as head coach.

RebelGrove.com’s Neal McCready is reporting that Nutt will finish the season as head coach.

Reports of a 10 a.m. CT press conference in Oxford, Mississippi, to announce, well, anything regarding the future of Ole Miss’ football program are untrue. However, rumors swirl that Rebels head coach Houston Nutt has or will be fired following Ole Miss’ 30-13 loss to Kentucky on Saturday.

Nutt’s future might actually be of secondary concern in Oxford: The rise of “Forward Rebels,” a group of self-described concerned fans and alumni, has put pressure on University of Mississippi athletic director Pete Boone to step down, with multiple newspaper advertisements and media appearances beginning after the 2010-‘11 athletic season yielded no postseason appearances in the Rebels’ three largest revenue generating sports, football, basketball and baseball.

The height of madness occurred late Saturday night, when rumors broke of Nutt being fired right after the Ole Miss-Kentucky game. Like, as he walked off the field, apparently. Somewhat more sober Sunday morning reports had Nutt being informed he wouldn’t remain as coach for next season.

Associate head coach Gunter Brewer is expected to take over as interim head coach, whenever it is that Nutt is dismissed. We’ll trust this report is accurate, though Nutt is quite clearly on the way out regardless of what he’s been told.

Houston Nutt, college football photo of the week contests will find you, wherever it is that you land.

Powe was a five-star recruit who chose Ole Miss over Auburn and LSU, but spent years in prep schools before finally being admitted to play. He became a starter and was picked in the sixth round. Here’s the text of his letter to Forward Rebels, an Ole Miss fan group that concerns itself with Boone’s eventual replacement, in which Powe alleges Boone “discouraged” him during his academic “struggle.”