Houston Nutt files federal lawsuit against Ole Miss

The Ole Miss football program is under investigation by the NCAA, but former coach Houston Nutt is now suing the school for defamation.

Houston Nutt was let go as football coach at Ole Miss after the 2011 season, his fourth season at the helm. He was replaced by Hugh Freeze, and the program has enjoyed a bit more success (39-25 over five seasons) without really getting over the hump in the SEC and nationally.

On January of 2016, Pat Forde of Yahoo! reported the NCAA formally charged the Ole Miss athletic department with dozens of rules violations in three sports. The investigation was first noted by Yahoo! in 2014.

Among roughly 30 violations in football, women’s basketball and track and field, it later became known that 21 of those violation are specific to football. Most of them, allegedly of course, occurred under Freeze’s watch.

On Wednesday, Nutt filed a federal lawsuit against Ole Miss. It includes direct shots at Freeze’s character, and alleges manipulation of the media by the current coach.

Nutt is also alleging a smear campaign to pin the ongoing NCAA investigation on him, led by Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork and sports information director Kyle Campbell. Nutt is seeking damages for lost wages, emotional distress, embarrassment, attorney’s fees and punitive damages.

Nutt also points to having left Ole Miss “in good standing” when he was fired, despite a 2-10 record in his final season and a 1-15 SEC record over his final two seasons. That good standing was surely only related to his personal reputation by the end of his tenure, and now that has been compromised by attachment to an NCAA investigation.

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Nutt has not coached anywhere since being fired by Ole Miss, which is odd in its own way. Any future job prospects are surely gone now with this lawsuit, if he had any left. But the timing of the lawsuit is interesting, with Freeze scheduled to speak at SEC Media Days on Thursday.