If Hugh Freeze needs someone to escort him out of Ole Miss, he knows where to call.
The school’s head football coach stunningly resigned amid scandal Thursday, after reportedly making a phone call to a female escort service from a university phone issued to him. Assistant Matt Luke has been named interim coach.
Athletic director Ross Bjork said during a press conference Thursday night that further investigation into Freeze’s phone records showed “conduct was just not something we thought we could continue with him as our head coach.”
He also stated that Freeze, whom he met with Wednesday night and again Thursday afternoon, admitted to the conduct and agreed to resign. Had he not, the school would have “exercised the termination clause in our contract for moral turpitude,” according to Bjork.
“He has taken responsibility and is accountable to his actions,” Bjork said.
Freeze dismissed the initial allegations, claiming it was a “misdial.”
“I’ve got no idea, to be honest,” Freeze told Yahoo Sports last week of the call. “I was in an 813 area code and that was a 313 number, I think that might have been a misdial. I don’t think there was even a conversation. There’s nothing to it.”
The Rebels’ victory over Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl after the 2015 season was the height of Freeze’s rebuilding efforts. Since then, an NCAA investigation alleging 21 charges of academic, booster and recruiting violations has cast a shadow over the program. The school already has self-imposed several penalties, including a one-year postseason ban for the upcoming season. Freeze’s misconduct is unrelated to the NCAA investigation, university chancellor Jeff Vitter said.
The alleged phone call to an escort service was made on the night of Jan. 19, 2016, and lasted just 1 minute. It was brought to Ole Miss’ attention during the proceedings of a federal lawsuit between the school and former coach Houston Nutt, according to reports.
“While Coach Freeze served our university well in many regards during his tenure, we simply cannot accept the conduct in his personal life that we have discovered,” Vitter said.
Nutt is alleging Ole Miss violated its severance agreement because university officials, Freeze and Bjork conspired to smear him in early 2016 with off-the-record conversations with reporters that put the blame for the violations on Nutt’s tenure.
On July 13, Nutt’s attorney told the school’s general counsel about a “highly embarrassing” phone call made by Freeze, according to USA Today. Bjork said because the number was only dialed once and the call lasted for less than a minute, it was labeled a misdial before the university investigated deeper.
Freeze, who was allowed to address the team Thursday, had a 39-25 record over five seasons. He replaced Nutt, who finished 2-10 during his final campaign in 2011.