Hugh Freeze Era Reportedly Bigger Part of the NCAA Violations with Ole Miss Football Program

Written by Ryan Wright

Twitter: @HogManInLA

Tough to know who knew what and when, but from the outside in it looks like the Ole Miss program may have deceived Class of 2016 recruits about NCAA violations just days ahead of National Signing Day.

A report that came out on Tuesday claimed that of the 28 NCAA violations the University of Mississippi athletic program is facing, 13 of those are from the football team with nine of those directly relating back to head coach Hugh Freeze. The difference in the violations are not consistent with reports from recruits just before National Signing Day, and one recruit in particular.

In an interview with Manvel High School (Texas) running back D’Vaughn Pennamon, posted on Feb. 1 on RecruitingNewsGuru.com, Pennamon said that during a visit to Oxford the weekend before Feb. 3, the Ole Miss staff addressed the violations stating, “There were five football violations but the violations happened before Coach Freeze was there.”

The other potential badly misleading case presented by the program and the coaching staff, Freeze supposedly told the recruits, “(the) violations will not affect our class.”

Per the AP source that released the new news about the Ole Miss program, the violations are a mix of Level I, II, and III violations with Level I being the most serious. How many of the violations will hit the program and how hard remain to be seen. The school has 90 days to respond to the allegations.

On the recruiting trail, Ole Miss finished ranked No. 7 in the nation, per Rivals, signing 24 players to the 2016 class. Of the 24, three committed on Wednesday, Feb. 1; WR A.J. Brown (4-star), DB Deontay Anderson (4-star), and TE Jacob Mathis (3-star). Two other players, OL Royce Newman (3-star) and WR Tre Nixon (4-star), committed on Jan. 25, a week and a half ahead of signing day.

Who knows if any of the five players mentioned ever had second thoughts about sticking to their commitment to Ole Miss on or before NSD, or any of the other 19 for that matter. Talking to D’Vaughn Pennamon on Feb. 1, he seemed like he was on the horns of a dilemma seemingly unsure if he was going to switch his commitment to a different program. When talking about his last three visits to Alabama, Texas A&M, and Ole Miss the statement was made to Pennamon, “You have a lot of great options ahead of you.” To which he replied, “Yeah, I’m waiting on my mom to get home so we can talk. I may be making an announcement tonight at 9:00 (CT). I might push it back until tomorrow though.” In the end Pennamon kept his commitment to the Rebels with Ole Miss getting their wanted running back when he signing on Feb. 3.

All the decisions have been made for whatever reason and the ink is dry on the letters of intent, but if depiction was at play by the Ole Miss coaching staff, any one of the 24 signees should be allowed to back out of their signed national letters of intent without penalty. It is unfair to wrongly and knowingly mislead a recruit, if that was the case, about NCAA sanctions that could keep a program from postseason play or worse.

It all adds up to another potential black eye for college football and the recruiting process as a whole. Hopefully for all involved, especially the players and the fan base, the violations turn out to be minor for the football team not affecting any part of the next 4-5 years on or off the field.

Photo credit: saturdaydownsouth.com; Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze.