Ole Miss Holds Presser After Hugh Freeze Resigns After 'Inappropriate Conduct'

Ole Miss Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter and athletic director Ross Bjork held a press conference Thursday to address Hugh Freeze's departure from the school. Earlier, the school announced that Freeze resigned from his position as head football coach.

Freeze's resignation came as Ole Miss deals with an NCAA investigation into alleged violations that occurred inside the football program both before and during Freeze's tenure. The school shared a copy of the NCAA's notice of allegations as well as its June 6 response to the NCAA.

However, things changed abruptly Thursday when Yahoo Sports' Pat Forde tweeted that "explosive new information" had put Freeze's status in "immediate jeopardy." Both Forde and USA Today's Dan Wolken reported Freeze called an escort service in Detroit using a school-issued phone. Freeze told Forde the call "might have been a misdial."

Vitter said during the press conference that Freeze's resignation and the reasoning behind it are "completely unrelated to the NCAA case," per WJTV 12 News' Tyler Greever.

Bjork addressed the phone calls.

"Once we looked at the rest of the phone records we found a pattern," Bjork said, per ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach. "It was troubling."

Below are Bjork's full comments about the phone calls from the ESPNews broadcast:

"Earlier this month—as is reported—in response to a public records request, we released Coach Freeze's work-related phone records for six days in January 2016. Coach Freeze redacted personal calls from those phone records before they were released. There was a phone call that was not redacted, and it was brought to our attention in the middle of last week. We did a quick assessment and determined that this was the only time that that particular number was ever called from Coach Freeze's phone since he started working here at Ole Miss in 2011. Because the call lasted less than one minute, it did not appear at the time to be a part of a pattern. We initially attributed this call to a misdialed number. As part of our core values running the athletics program, we have an obligation to do the right thing, so we proactively looked into the rest of his phone records. In our analysis, we discovered a pattern of conduct that is not consistent with our expectations as the leader of our football program."

Bjork added that he and Vitter spoke with Freeze on Wednesday night before meeting with him again Thursday, at which point Freeze resigned.

Bjork declined to specify whether the calls related to escort services, according to Fox Sports' Bruce Feldman, but did say Freeze admitted to "personal misconduct," per college football writer Brett McMurphy.

In 2016, Ole Miss announced it had agreed to a four-year extension with Freeze that paid him an average of $4.9 million annually. Bjork confirmed during the press conference that the school didn't work out a buyout or settlement with Freeze in conjunction with his departure, per Feldman.

Along with Freeze's resignation, Ole Miss said Matt Luke, the Rebels' co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, will serve as the interim head coach. In addition, Bjork announced defensive coordinator Wesley McGriff will be the associate head coach, per SI College Football.

Regarding the search for a permanent replacement for Freeze, Bjork said he "[hasn't] even thought about a search," per Greever.

The Orlando Sentinel's Matt Murschel noted Ole Miss still has a hearing with the NCAA's Committee on Infractions before that situation is ultimately resolved. The football team will also serve a self-imposed postseason bowl ban for the 2017 season.