Hugh Freeze owns NCAA violations

Hugh Freeze owns NCAA violations but calls them 'mistakes'

HUGH FREEZE

SANDESTIN, Fla. — If he had it to do again, Hugh Freeze said he might not have sent that “infamous tweet” — his words — challenging anyone with information the Rebels were cheating to email the Ole Miss compliance department.

But he would choose another forum — not a different message.

“It was from a sincerity,” Freeze said Tuesday of sending the tweet, “that if there are things that are wrong, we want to know.”

We now know some things were wrong, as outlined in a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA and Ole Miss’ response to it after an investigation that spanned more than three years. As the SEC’s annual meetings kicked off at the Sandestin Hilton, Freeze took responsibility for the rules violations, but insisted there was no intent to cheat.

“I stand here today owning the mistakes, but that is what they are,” he said while nearing the finish of a lengthy prepared statement, “and not some staff out trying to buy players.”

The NCAA charges — and Ole Miss largely agrees — that 13 violations occurred in football. Four occurred during the tenure of Freeze’s predecessor, Houston Nutt. Of the nine since Freeze’s arrival, four are classified as Level I violations, the most serious in the NCAA’s structure.

Three involved loans of cash and cars and improper payments and free lodging given to former All-American offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil or his family members. Tunsil, one of the crown jewels of the February 2013 recruiting class that prompted rumors of cheating and Freeze’s tweet, was suspended for seven games last season.

Freeze said Ole Miss disagrees with the NCAA’s interpretation of the fourth Level I violation, in which tight ends coach Maurice Harris allegedly arranged for transportation of two recruits. The school believes it should be a lesser charge.

Ole Miss has self-imposed several penalties, including the loss of 11 football scholarships from 2015-18, a temporary ban on unofficial visits by recruits and limits on coaches’ off-campus recruiting. Freeze called the penalties “punitive.”

“To me there is a difference in making a mistake and a willful intent to circumvent rules to try and gain an advantage,” Freeze said.

In its response to the NCAA, which the school released last Friday, Ole Miss asked for extra time to investigate new allegations involving Tunsil.

Last month during the first round of the NFL Draft, screen shots were posted to Tunsil’s Instagram account of text messages between Tunsil and Ole Miss assistant athletic director of football operations John Miller, in which Tunsil asked for money to pay rent and utility bills. Tunsil told reporters later that night he took money from coaches.

“That certainly didn’t help the narrative,” Freeze acknowledged Tuesday, even as he insisted he would fire any coach who intended to break rules.

“I don’t believe and I have zero knowledge that any of our coaches have ever paid a player,” Freeze said. “And if I get that knowledge there will be problems.”

Freeze, who has been outspoken about his Christian faith, said the stain on the program and to his personal reputation has been difficult and “frustrating,” especially given the knowledge that he might not be able to change the minds of people convinced Ole Miss has cheated.

“While I have struggles in life that I don’t always get it right,” he said, “breaking the rules in recruiting is not one of them. My name and the name of Him that I represent and our university mean more to me than I can express. It is my hope that we would be known for who we truly are and these mistakes would not happen again.”

Freeze also said Ole Miss’ success, which he described as a gradual building process rather than an overnight thing, had “rocked the narrative of college football a little bit, and there’s obviously some people who don’t like that.”

“Hopefully in time we’ll just continue to be successful and maybe we can prove ourselves,” he said.

Freeze said recruits ask, “What are the penalties?”

“I don’t know the answer to that,” he said. “… I don’t know what the end result will be. I think we’ve been pretty punitive to ourselves, but that’s not for me to decide.”

Under the NCAA’s penalty structure, Freeze could be held responsible and could face a suspension. He said he didn’t expect that to happen.

source: www.usatoday.com