Fansided

Hugh Freeze phone records show hundreds of calls with disassociated booster

By Derek Helling

OXFORD, MS - NOVEMBER 05: Head coach Hugh Freeze of the Mississippi Rebels reacts during a game against the Georgia Southern Eagles at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on November 5, 2016 in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
OXFORD, MS - NOVEMBER 05: Head coach Hugh Freeze of the Mississippi Rebels reacts during a game against the Georgia Southern Eagles at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on November 5, 2016 in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /
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Redacted but released phone records from Hugh Freeze’s tenure as the head football coach at Ole Miss show that Freeze had heavy contact with Lee Harris, the former Mississippi booster whose role in the NCAA investigation into alleged recruiting violations got him banned from contact with the school.

Lee Harris was one of the primary subjects of the NCAA investigation into possible impermissible benefits provided to lure a former recruit to Ole Miss, and the release of the redacted Hugh Freeze phone records shows that the former coach had hundreds of conversations with him before, during and since the investigation.

Freeze was able to redact personal calls from the phone records under Mississippi law before they were released to the media, but the records that remain show frequent communication with Harris from Jan. 2015 through Freeze’s resignation last month according to Dan Wolken of USA Today Sports.

The content of the calls is unknown. Freeze’s attorney W.G. Watkins maintains that Freeze and Harris were friends, and the content of their conversations before and during the NCAA investigation that both men were part of had nothing to do with either the alleged impermissible benefits that Harris has been accused of providing or the investigation into the situation.

In his statement, Watkins is addressing the elephant in the room. Evidence uncovered by the NCAA in its investigation proved that Harris lied to the NCAA when investigators questioned him in Nov. of 2016 about having contact with Mississippi State linebacker Leo Lewis before Lewis announced his commitment to the Bulldogs. Lewis was being recruited by the Rebels as well at the time.

The frequency and timing of the communication between Freeze and Harris suggests that Freeze could have coached Harris to deceive the NCAA in an effort to thwart the investigation. Short of finding a smoking gun text or getting a confession out of Freeze or Harris, that will be difficult for the NCAA to prove. The frequency and timing of the communication does nothing to help Freeze’s reputation in the NCAA’s eyes, however.

While Freeze is no longer the head coach of the Rebels, he has still been given the charge of failure to monitor by the NCAA. If that charge sticks through the NCAA’s disciplinary and appeals process, Freeze could be hit with a ban or a show cause order that would keep him out of the NCAA coaching ranks for years to come.

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If Freeze is able to avoid being banned from coaching or some school considers him a candidate after his ban expires, it might be wise for a potential school which hires him to utilize the parental controls on his phone. In reality, however, it was probably already likely that fans have already seen the last of Freeze as the head coach on a NCAA sideline, and these phone records make that even more certain.

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