Hugh Freeze Wants Ole Miss' Focus to Be on Only One Thing, Football

OXFORD, Miss. — Hugh Freeze looked tired on Thursday.

It’s pretty normal for his players to appear that way after the first day of spring practices, but this isn’t a normal month for the Ole Miss head coach who’s entering his fifth year and surrounded by more challenges than ever.

It’s also quite a contrast from the last time the Rebels were completely together as a team, celebrating their first win at the Sugar Bowl since 1970.

“It’s always great to be on the field as a coach, that’s what you want to do,” Freeze said. “But you learn that in this profession you better control what you can control and stay focused on that. If not, your life is sort of like a roller coaster.

“You believe in who you are and how you do things and try and stay true to that and be consistent in your approach to things. You can’t let the other things bother you.”

The roller coaster analogy was certainly fitting, especially with ongoing construction at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium sort of resembling what one might see in the sectioned-off area of an amusement park. Right now, keeping things like that from being a distraction to the team has to be the head coach's top priority.

If you haven’t paying attention to Ole Miss since it knocked off Alabama last October, things have been anything but dull. On the plus side, it finished the 2015 season with an impressive 48-20 win against Oklahoma State and then last month landed another top recruiting class—No. 6 according to the 247Sports composite rankings.

Otherwise there’s seemingly been one off-field issue after another, from Laremy Tunsil being suspended for the first seven games of last season to brothers Denzel and Robert Nkemdiche ending 2015 with suspensions and leaving the team.

However, that ramped up roughly a month ago when Pat Forde of Yahoo.com reported the NCAA was charging Ole Miss with multiple rules violations. According to the Associated Press, 13 of the 28 violations were football specific, including nine during Freeze’s tenure. Five stemmed from allegations made by Tunsil's former stepfather, Lindsey Miller.

Moreover, according to The Advocate in Baton Rouge, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette announced on Thursday that it will vacate 22 wins and the shared 2013 Sun Belt Conference championship due to improprieties by David Saunders. The former assistant coach at both ULL and Ole Miss was accused of helping five recruits receive fraudulent ACT scores in addition to other charges.

Daniel Paulling of the Clarion-Ledger notes that "Ole Miss became linked to that investigation when NCAA enforcement staff interviewed Saunders on Dec. 16, 2013." The interview, which is detailed in a report by the Committee on Infractions, discussed (per Paulling) "'events that took place while that assistant was employed' elsewhere," and it also mentions that "a football player 'that institution recruited' was also part of the interview."

“During the interviews, the enforcement staff believed the former assistant football coach may have known of or may have been involved in NCAA rules violations concerning academic issues while at another member institution,” the committee report stated.

One can understand why Freeze looked tired. Normally his off-field comments right before spring break are about the annual trip to Haiti, which this year will include 28 people. It barely came up during his pre-practice press conference.

“I talk to our players about everything if they want to talk about it,” he said. “They know who we are. They’ve seen us through recruiting, they’ve seen us in good times and disappointing times. I don’t have to talk to them a lot, but we assured them that we have a lot of people who are working on our behalf as a program for any issues that come up off the field.”

As for the football team, the 2016 squad already has plenty to worry about, especially since the Rebels have to find eight new starters on the offensive side including a whole new line. Getting the initial looks are, from left to right, Alex Givens, Robert Conyers, Sean Rawlings, Jordan Sims and Jeremy Liggins.

Defensively, the biggest questions are in the middle at linebacker and safety, but Ole Miss may have taken an important step with this week’s announcement that middle linebacker Rommel Mageo will join the Rebels as a fifth-year transfer from Oregon State after he graduates this spring.

Listed at 6’2”, 233 pounds, he led the Beavers with 87 tackles last season, with 2.0 sacks, two interceptions, three passes defended, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.

Of course the key returning player is quarterback Chad Kelly, who went from being a controversial addition to the roster a year ago to breaking or tying 14 single-season school records. He’ll have some familiar targets with tight end Evan Engram and wide receivers Quincy Adeboyejo and Damore’ea Stringfellow after deciding to not leave early for the NFL draft.

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“I want to win an SEC championship and a national championship, that’s our main goal, the whole team’s goal, and we really feel like we can do that,” Kelly said.

“It wasn’t a tough decision at all.”

But Kelly stills gets as many questions about his life off the field as on, and similarly Ole Miss has to deal with headlines like “Archie Manning defends Ole Miss’ Hugh Freeze on NCAA violations,” on SI.com. 

That’s a lot for Freeze to be up against, and Ole Miss won’t have a spring game due to the stadium construction. Nevertheless, he has to bring the focus back to football, back to next season and continuing what the Rebels have been building during his first four seasons.

Fittingly, with the coach having a theme for every spring, this year’s is “Uncommon,” based off the books by former NFL coach Tony Dungy.

“Carefully think about the words that you use this week,” he said. “They’re painting a picture for you. Is that picture what you want it to be as a man?”

He obviously hopes to do something similar for the program as a whole.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer. Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.