Ole Miss Football: Nobody Wins in This Laremy Tunsil Mess

There's no other way to describe the situation Ole Miss' Laremy Tunsil finds himself in other than "a mess."

A family mess, a football mess and now, potentially, an NCAA mess.

Tunsil was arrested and charged with domestic violence after allegedly punching his stepfather, Lindsey Miller, on Thursday in defense of his mother, Desiree Tunsil, whom Miller allegedly shoved during an altercation at the Tunsil home. According to Riley Blevins of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Miller was also charged for the incident.

Head coach Hugh Freeze backed his player when the story first broke Saturday.

"Laremy realizes he could have handled it differently, but I am proud of him for standing up for his mother and protecting his family," Freeze said, according to Brett McMurphy of ESPN.com. "Laremy and his mother have also pressed charges against the stepfather."

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

On Wednesday, more details to the story trickled out.

According to the police report Blevins received Tuesday night, Miller told investigators shortly after the incident that he and Desiree were arguing with each other because Laremy was "riding around with agents." Tunsil, a 6'5", 305-pound junior who is draft-eligible after this season, allegedly was pulled off Miller by four men and left in a yellow convertible.

As Freeze correctly pointed out in his quote, meeting with agents is allowed.

"We are aware that Laremy and his family have met with potential agents, which is within his NCAA rights as a student-athlete," Freeze said in a statement to the Clarion-Ledger. "Regarding the altercation, we will continue to gather facts and cooperate with the proper authorities."

Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press

Aside from the potentially impermissible benefit of riding in a car with agents, which likely wouldn't be a major NCAA problem considering the circumstances around the incident, it doesn't sound like Tunsil did anything wrong.

Still, nobody is going to be a winner in this mess, and that makes me sad.

John Talty of AL.com speculates Miller might be intent on tearing the whole family down.

Football shouldn't play a part in tearing a family apart. Unfortunately, with so much on the line and such a small window for earning, it appears that it has.

Whether you're an Ole Miss fan or one of its rivals, taking joy in football tearing apart a family is something you shouldn't enjoy.

For Tunsil and Ole Miss, the presence of agents compounds the situation.

While Freeze is right in saying Tunsil did nothing wrong if he talked to agents, when you combine agents with college football players, the perception of impropriety will jump to the forefront. That's completely unfair, but it's also reality in this day and age.

Those agents apparently—if you believe Blevins' report—are now potentially witnesses to a crime. 

Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press

The ears of NCAA investigators are going to perk up due to this situation regardless, and now some of the key witnesses of any potential investigation have even more pressure to talk thanks to the legal aspect of this case.

Aside from a few dollars in gas money for a ride, Tunsil might be as clean as a whistle from an NCAA standpoint. But you never want to open the door for the NCAA, and this situation has.

Regardless, this has become a distraction for Ole Miss in a year in which it has legitimate hopes of taking the next step and contending for the SEC West—a division it has never won since the conference expanded in 1992.

Now, Freeze and his staff not only have to deal with the potential legal ramifications from one of its star players being charged with domestic violence but also has to deal with the headache of defending one of his star players for doing something that's allowed and defending the perception of the program.

Nobody wins in this Tunsil mess.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of cfbstats.com unless otherwise noted, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports' composite rankings.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and college football video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on Sirius 93, XM 208.

Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.