Hugh Freeze: ‘I own’ violations found by NCAA investigation
Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said he takes responsibility for the alleged NCAA violations in his time as the Rebels’ head coach, though he contends that he didn’t have any information regarding illicit payments from members of his coaching staff.
Ole Miss sanctioned itself in response to the NCAA’s notice of allegations regarding violations at the school. The NCAA found 13 football violations and nine of them came from Freeze’s tenure. From ESPN:
“The first thing I would say is that I own it. That’s part of it when you’re the head coach. You take the good with the bad,” said Freeze, who’s in Sandestin for the SEC spring meetings. “But there’s a big difference between making mistakes in recruiting and going out there with the intent to cheat. I don’t have any information that anybody on my staff has been involved in any illegal payments to players or offering any inducements to players, and if I did have that information, I would fire them.”
Freeze also told GridironNow.com that Ole Miss made mistakes. But it didn’t cheat.
“There is a difference between making mistakes and cheating,” Freeze told the site. “Did we make mistakes? Yes, we did, and we’ve taken action. We’re not perfect.
“But I’m not going to cheat. I’m not. I’ll lose but I’m not going to cheat.”
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Freeze’s reasoning is interesting in the aftermath of what became public on Friday. The investigation revealed, among other things, that a booster and assistant coach impermissibly provided free lodging, ex-assistants “engaged in fradulence of misconduct in connection with the ACT exams of three then football prospective student-athletes” and a booster was paying recruits.
Even if all of the things named in the investigation were mistakes rather than outright cheating, Ole Miss still doesn’t look very good. To contend that the allegations named were mistakes implies that the staff was incredibly unfamiliar with NCAA bylaws and rules, making Ole Miss look like it failed in educating its staff members of what is and isn’t permissible.
The school self-imposed a loss of 11 scholarships through 2018 and fined itself nearly $160,000.
Ole Miss has also asked the NCAA to delay its case because of what came out on the first night of the NFL draft. Former offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil seemingly admitted that he had taken impermissible payments and screenshots of conversations showed a conversation regarding illegal benefits.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
