Fansided

Hugh Freeze coming back to be head coach at Liberty

By Brad Berreman

OXFORD, MS - SEPTEMBER 24: Head Coach Hugh Freeze of the Mississippi Rebels on the sidelines during a game against the Georgia Bulldogs at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on September 24, 2016 in Oxford, Mississippi. The Rebels defeated the Bulldogs 45-14. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
OXFORD, MS - SEPTEMBER 24: Head Coach Hugh Freeze of the Mississippi Rebels on the sidelines during a game against the Georgia Bulldogs at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on September 24, 2016 in Oxford, Mississippi. The Rebels defeated the Bulldogs 45-14. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /
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After some time in relative exile, Hugh Freeze is coming back to become the head coach at Liberty.

Based purely on his 69-32 overall record as a head coach, Hugh Freeze should have no trouble finding another job. He also led Ole Miss to two New Year’s Six bowl games within his first four seasons there, but NCAA issues and using a school-issued phone to call escort services led to his resignation in July of 2017.

Freeze was given a one-year show-cause penalty, and a couple months ago he was named offensive coordinator for the Arizona franchise in the upcoming Alliance of American Football. But as first reported by Football Scoop, Freeze is going to be hired as head coach at Liberty.

The opening at Liberty was created rather suddenly on Monday this week when Turner Gill announced his retirement due to his wife’s ongoing health issues. Freeze immediately surfaced as a candidate to replace Gill, due primarily to a public speaking appearance there last January.

While the school didn’t immediately comment on the report Freeze will be hired, a news conference is reportedly slated for later Friday.

Liberty made the jump to FBS as an Independent this year, finishing 6-6 in Gill’s seventh season as coach. So Freeze won’t find a completely bare cupboard, even without the type of high-level recruits be managed to bring to Ole Miss (however illegally, in NCAA terms).

The power of public sentiment may have helped Freeze land at Liberty, and a prediction in August now looks especially astute.

Former Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw is in the same post at Liberty. With the issues McCaw oversaw/overlooked in Waco and now Freeze being brought in, the Twitter zing was too easy.

If Freeze can avoid odd non-football misdeeds and perhaps, more importantly, avoid the NCAA’s wrath, solid success at Liberty purely as a football coach is easily possible. Bigger schools may then come calling, if his past issues can be overlooked or he genuinely can show he learned something.

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But for now, Freeze and Liberty are a marriage rooted in convenience and publicity, with no downside for either.

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