Hugh Freeze Comments on Ole Miss' NCAA Violations, Denies Paying Players

Ole Miss head football coach Hugh Freeze is taking ownership of the mistakes he's made at the helm of the Rebels program—which have led to a myriad of NCAA violations—but won't acknowledge his staff knowingly paid players.

Mark Long of the Associated Press reported Tuesday what Freeze had to say regarding the allegations notice Ole Miss received in January.   

"There's not a single charge in our letter that charges a coach with (being) out buying players," said Freeze. "While I have struggles in life that I don't always get right, breaking the rules in recruiting is not one of them. I won't do it."

Freeze added, per ESPN's Brett McMurphy, "I have zero knowledge any (of our) coaches has paid a player. If I get that knowledge, there will be problems."

The NCAA cited the Rebels' football program in 13 of the 28 total rules violations Ole Miss committed, though, per ESPN.com's comprehensive report from February, nine of the violations occurred under Freeze's watch.

McMurphy featured Freeze's breakdown of what did and didn't happen during his tenure:

Asked how the violations would impact his ability to lure players to Oxford, Mississippi, Freeze said, per McMurphy, "It's still going good. We're still on the top guys (around) the nation."

Per Long, Freeze fielded questions about violations pertaining to former star offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil, who slid in the 2016 NFL draft but was still selected 13th overall by the Miami Dolphins. Tunsil was involved in five of the 13 violations cited in the ESPN.com report.

While Freeze's public accountability is commendable, there may be more damage yet to come for the Rebels.

Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com reported last Friday on Ole Miss' 154-page response to the violations, indicating the Rebels had voluntarily stripped themselves of 11 football scholarships from 2015-18 along with self-imposing other sanctions.

As ESPN.com's Edward Aschoff reported last week, though, the saga involving Tunsil has still yet to be resolved because of the text messages leaked on the first night of the NFL draft.

Those messages, which were posted to Tunsil's hacked Instagram account, along with the video of him smoking out of a bong, were what led to his draft tumble. He also admitted to taking money during his college career.

The ramifications of the leaked video and messages were costly for Tunsil, and the latter could still lead to further NCAA violations for Ole Miss.

Strong as Freeze has been as a recruiter—most notably landing 247Sports' No. 1 overall player from 2013 in its composite rankings in defensive lineman Robert Nkemdiche—the negative attention around the Rebels and their self-imposed scholarship reductions will make keeping pace in the SEC all the more difficult in the coming years.