Reports: Ole Miss to release NCAA response soon as this week; Hugh Freeze not concerned about job

Published 9:26 am Thursday, June 1, 2017

Ole Miss is expected to release its response to the NCAA’s notice of allegation this week, according to a report.

And Rebel head football coach Hugh Freeze is not overly concerned that his job is on the line as a result of the NCAA’s allegations based on what has happened to other coaches facing similar circumstances, according to a statement he made this week.

“Have you looked at how many coaches have been charged with failure to monitor and what has happened to them?” Freeze said this week at the SEC Spring Meeting. “… I don’t know of any that have lost their jobs.”

Email newsletter signup

Freeze also said he is looking forward to this upcoming football season in a “weird way,” despite the fact that Ole Miss has a self-imposed football bowl ban.

“I’m looking forward to [the bowl ban] in a weird kind of way,” Ole Miss’ coach said during the league meetings. “I have the opportunity to really model for a group of young men how real life can be like when you’re faced something you didn’t ask for.”

Freeze said that Ole Miss will tell its side of the story “soon,” and that coincides with a report from a TV station in Indiana that suggests the university will publicly release its response to the NCAA’s NOA this week. Ole Miss reportedly submitted its response to the NCAA last week, meeting a 90 deadline from when the NOA was delivered to the university on February 22 of this year.

The attorney for former Ole Miss assistant Barney Farrar, terminated by the university earlier this year, told the TV station in Indiana earlier this week “he is concerned Farrar has been singled out by Ole Miss decision-makers on the case to curry favor with the NCAA.”

Ole Miss faces four Level 1 NCAA charges, according to the Indiana TV station report, that reportedly involved Farrar while he was an assistant coach at the university. These Level 1 charges reportedly include:

  • Providing lodging and transportation to Ole Miss Football recruits worth $2,200, and meals worth $235
  • Providing false information knowingly about recruiting violations when asked by the NCAA and Ole Miss Football
  • Boosters contacting one athlete committed to another NCAA football program, and allowed a cash payment(s) to that athlete worth $13-15,000
  • Distributing athletic gear, courtesy of a company owned by an Ole Miss booster, to recruits