Making the Case for Hugh Freeze to Florida
The Florida job is a monster, and it appears that athletics director Jeremy Foley is going after Godzilla.
Or, at least, one of the characters in the movie.
Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze has established himself is one of the top up-and-coming head coaches in college football, after leading the Rebels to three straight bowls in his first three seasons in Oxford. His fine work culminated this year, in which he went 9-3 and won the Egg Bowl.
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That sound you hear is the sound of cash registers.
Sports Illustrated's Pete Thamel reported over the weekend that Freeze is on Foley's short list, and SBNation's Steven Godfrey reports that an offer has been made by Florida to Freeze that would pay him between $4.2 million and $4.3 million annually.
Florida, predictably, denied those offers.
That doesn't mean one won't be made or that the topic isn't being discussed between Florida and Freeze's representatives.
It's likely that Freeze—a Mississippi native—is just taking advantage of the opportunity to get a big raise (as he should). Whether that's the case or there's genuine interest, Florida is still the attractive girl at the prom who wants to dance.
What would be the draw for Freeze to go to Gainesville?
Foundation
Florida is a sleeping giant in the SEC East and has the foundation in place for Freeze—or anybody—to orchestrate an immediate turnaround.
Freeze already did that once before, when he turned a Rebels team that had one conference win over a two-year span into a perennial bowl team.
At Florida, Freeze would inherit a program that has reeled in top-10 recruiting classes in each of the last three years, the best cornerback in college football in Vernon Hargreaves III, a veteran leader at linebacker in Antonio Morrison, a dynamic running back duo in Matt Jones and Kelvin Taylor—both of whom can run between the tackles—and a potential superstar receiver in Demarcus Robinson.
"We’ve got a deep and talented roster, so don't let that new guy tell you he ain't got no good players," former head coach Will Muschamp said during the departure announcing his dismissal. "Tell you that right now. They got some good football players in that locker room."
He's right, and that's exactly why Muschamp is no longer employed there.
The talent was there to build off of the success of the 2012 team that went 11-2 and earned a Sugar Bowl berth, but an antiquated offensive system, inconsistency from the quarterback and some of the worst luck in college football history prevented Muschamp from doing that.
Opportunity
The SEC West is, more or less, seven cluster homes where all the neighbors blare Mastodon into the wee hours of the morning even if you call the cops seven times.
The SEC East, on the other hand, is the quiet neighborhood out in the country where you have to fill your car up with gas just to visit the next-door neighbors.
Six SEC West teams have played in the final five BCS National Championship Games, and another—Alabama—is currently the top-ranked team in the College Football Playoff rankings.
The East is a hot mess.
Missouri has won the division in each of the last two seasons and gone 14-2 over that span, beating only one team—Georgia last year—that finished with an SEC record over .500.
If an SEC championship is Freeze's goal, it's much more attainable at Florida than at Ole Miss—despite Ole Miss' recent success.
Recruiting Bonanza
Part of the reason Ole Miss has been on the map over Freeze's first two seasons was the work he's done in living rooms.
The Rebels reeled in the eighth-ranked recruiting class in the country in 2013. That class featured the nation's No. 1 overall player Robert Nkemdiche, 5-star offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil, 5-star wide receiver Laquon Treadwell, 5-star safety Tony Conner and a boatload of talented players who have become stars in Oxford.
That class was the exception at Ole Miss, and Freeze had been working to make it become the rule.
It's been the rule in Gainesville for decades.
Can you imagine Freeze sporting the orange and blue in the fertile recruiting ground of Florida? He could throw a rock blindfolded and hit a dozen 5-star recruits. If he took the blindfold off, he could hit an entire class.
As Derek Tyson of ESPN.com correctly points out, three members of Freeze's Ole Miss staff—Tom Allen, Chris Kiffin and Dan Werner—have extensive ties to the sunshine state. Would Freeze bring all of them to Gainesville? Probably, but even if he doesn't, Florida still has coaches like defensive backs coach Travaris Robinson with Florida ties holding over from Muschamp's staff for now.
Freeze's ability to recruit combined with one of the most talent-rich states in the country would be terrifying to other coaches in the SEC.
| Florida | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Ole Miss | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
It's a tough choice for Freeze.
It's no secret that he's happy in Oxford, takes pride in building the Ole Miss program into a national power and intends to sustain that success over a prolonged period of time.
Florida is a destination job, though, and those offers only come along every once in a while.
It is, in every sense of the phrase, a "rich man's problem."
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a co-host of the CFB Hangover on Bleacher Report Radio (Sundays, 9-11 a.m. ET) on Sirius 93, XM 208.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of cfbstats.com, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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