When Hugh freeze was hired at Liberty in December of last year, he brought with him some questions surrounding his integrity and some off the field issues as well. One thing that is not questioned is Freeze’s ability to put together quality football teams. Freeze had a great stint as head coach at Ole Miss but everything that he accomplished on the field has been mired by what happened off.
Freeze was the second questionable hire by Liberty in the last several years. Ian McCaw, the former Baylor Athletic Director that resigned after the school put him on probation for the athletic department’s failure to adequately respond to multiple reports of sexual assault by football players under then coach Art Briles reign as head coach. McCaw was hired by Liberty in 2016 in the same role that he held at Baylor. The school was met by criticism from students, media and people across the country. Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr attempted to ease the criticism by saying that “He is a good man who found himself in a place where bad things were happening and decided to leave and now Liberty is the beneficiary.” This quote did not do much to ease tensions caused by the hire.
McCaw was soon under fire again when news broke that McCaw and head coach Art Briles were both informed of an allegation from a student-athlete that she had been gang raped by football players at Baylor. It was later discovered that neither McCaw nor Briles reported this allegation to the proper authorities. A New York Times article on McCaw’s hire at Liberty discovered that even though a claim was made by Falwell that McCaw was properly investigated, it was discovered that the only person they really spoke with from Baylor was a former coach that is well known around the university. No attempts were made to speak to anyone else involved with the investigation including the law firm that conducted it.
So last December when Liberty hired Hugh Freeze as their head coach, there was a lot of talk about Liberty and their questionable hires at a university that is founded on their Christian faith. Freeze was the head coach at Ole Miss from 2012-2016 . In the 2015 season, Ole Miss beat Alabama, earned a birth in the Sugar Bowl where they defeated Oklahoma State and finished with the schools first top 10 finish in over 45 years. Freeze had the team headed in the right direction until January 2016 when Ole Miss was charged with numerous violations by the NCAA. There were academic and recruiting violations with most being during Freeze’s tenure, but some dating back to former coach Houston Nutt. The result of the violations was a two year bowl ban (one self imposed) and 33 wins being vacated along with probation.
Freeze kept his job at Ole Miss throughout the NCAA investigation, but his time at Ole Miss would come to an abrupt halt in July 2017. In an odd series of events that included a lawyer for previous head coach Houston Nutt, who was suing the university for defamation, discovered phone calls made by Freeze from his university issued phone to an escort service. In the end there were discovered to be at least 12 calls made to numbers associated with escort services. Ole Miss Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter made a statement shortly after the discovery. “A pattern of personal misconduct inconsistent with the standards we expect from the leader of our football team.” Freeze ended up resigning his position in lieu of being fired.
Freeze took the 20118 season off before accepting the head coaching role at Liberty after Turner Gill left. Shortly after the beginning of fall camp, Freeze was hampered by back pain that would require him to have surgery for a herniated disc. During the surgery doctors discovered a potential life threatening form of staph infection that had entered his blood stream. Speaking to ESPN, Freeze said “The doctors told me if it had been another 24 hours, that strand of bacteria would have killed me if President Falwell wasn’t so quick to make sure we got the right people involved.” Freeze has since been released from the hospital and resting in his hotel room. While in his hotel room, Freeze helps conduct practice via walkie talkie and his staff heads up to his room to hold meetings so that Freeze doesn’t have to move around. Freeze seems confident that he will be able to coach Saturday’s game against Syracuse, but he might end up having to coach from the press box to help alleviate pain from the surgery.
It is safe to say that Hugh Freeze has had quite the roller coaster career wise and personally over the last few years, but this could be the opportunity that Freeze needs to reinvent himself as a coach, and most importantly as a person. Not everyone gets a second chance in life, lets hope that Freeze makes the most of his.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter @Johnathan_K_
Make you follow the All Sports Discussion Twitter account at @AllSportsDACC and please like our Facebook Page
Leave a Reply