Houston Nutt's Lawyer Says Ole Miss Is Suppressing Hugh Freeze's Phone Records

An attorney for former Ole Miss head football coach Houston Nutt alleges the University of Mississippi is attempting to avoid fully disclosing all of Hugh Freeze's phone records following his resignation last week.

Dan Wolken of USA Today reported Friday lawyer Thomas Mars sent a letter to Ole Miss general counsel requesting five years worth of records from Freeze's phone and challenged the school's estimated cost of $25,100 to gather and provide the information.

"From the very outset, the University has found all kinds of creative and illegitimate reasons to delay producing documents, redact documents without legal justification," Mars wrote in the letter.

He added: "We know what we're looking for, it's very relevant to Coach Nutt's lawsuit, and we know it's in the phone logs. And setting up a frivolous roadblock the way you've done it here just makes you look like you're scared to death of what we're going to find in those phone records."

Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports reported Freeze resigned as head coach after Ole Miss found a call from his school-issued phone to an escort service. Athletic director Ross Bjork said further investigation revealed a "pattern of conduct," which was presented to Freeze.

"He admitted that conduct to us," Bjork said. "None of us are perfect. Nobody in this room is perfect. I think we need to respect how he resigned and respect his privacy."

Wolken noted Mars filed a lawsuit on behalf of Nutt against the school in July claiming Freeze and Bjork "pushed a false narrative" about Nutt's role in the program's NCAA violations.

Nutt resigned from Ole Miss following the 2011 season. The NCAA's Notice of Allegations released in February covered issues from the 2009-10 school year through 2013-14.

Matt Luke is currently leading the Rebels' football program on an interim basis.