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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBlaming you predecessor - WOW what a turn of events - Ole Miss football
Hold it! What is college football doing in GD? Stick with me on this.
The best two stories on this that I can find are below.
In the highly competitive world of SEC football Ole Miss made a sudden surge in recruiting. Everyone knew it stunk of cheating (it did).
Houston Nutt, the previous coach, got fired for basically cheating in recruiting players. YES the names. The next coach Hugh Freeze gets caught too and blames Nutt. Nutt sues for defamation of character and wants phone records to see if Freeze was calling reporters. Freeze turns over his university phone records (Nutt still had someone on his side inside the university) that include a supposed "misdial" to an escort service. Freeze could have redacted personal calls. Didn't. Freeze evokes GOD all the time including tweeting scripture.
Sports radio is reporting there were 13 "misdials".
Apparently Nutt was in regular contact with local and SEC reporters.
Freeze was fired today.
This is big business. South Eastern Conference (SEC) football coaches are usually the highest paid public officials in every state. BIG MONEY.
Hugh Freeze brought down by hubris, vengeance and sex
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnists/geoff-calkins/2017/07/21/freeze-brought-down-hubris-vengeance-and-sex/498351001/
That was the hubris. If Freeze had apologized, its possible the matter would have ended there. Instead, Nutt and here comes the vengeance decided to sue for defamation of character. In preparation for that lawsuit, Nutt requested phone numbers from Ole Miss for a six-day period in January of 2016, when Nutt suspected Freeze was disparaging him in off-the-record conversations with reporters.
As it happens, a strange number popped up. It was a Detroit number linked to a Florida-based escort service. Nutts attorney, Thomas Mars, then shared that number with reporters from USA Today and Yahoo Sports.
I think it might have been a misdial, Freeze told Yahoo.
The record shows Freeze presided over a football program that committed numerous NCAA violations.
The record shows he called at least one escort service and likely more.
The record shows he did all this on his university-issued cell phone.
The record shows he did it while tweeting daily Bible verses.
Ole Miss football coach Hugh Freeze made call to number tied to escort service
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/sec/2017/07/20/ole-miss-coach-hugh-freeze-called-number-tied-escort-service/498056001/
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 universitys legal counsel and the attorney for former Rebels football coach Houston Nutt, according to records and correspondence obtained by USA TODAY Sports.
The call, which was made on the evening of Jan. 19, 2016, to a Detroit (313) area code, lasts just one minute, according to e-mails exchanged between the two parties. But the phone number is associated with several Web sites advertising a female escort based in Tampa, Fla., USA TODAY Sports has independently confirmed. The phone number has been disconnected.
According to Mars, the records do not show Freeze immediately redialing a different or similar number, nor do other calls to a 313 number appear in the phone records covering the days Mars requested.
In putting together the lawsuit, Mars paired phone calls made from Freeze, Bjork and head of communications Kyle Campbell to reporters around the time Yahoo! Sports reported that Ole Miss had received its Notice of Allegations from the NCAA.
Ilsa
(61,700 posts)That's funny. No wonder their program turned into a Hottie Toddy (sp?) deal. Screw 'em.