True Blue Kentucky

He coached at Arkansas St. this season leading them to a 10-2 record (4-8 last season under another coach). He was not Ole Misses top target, though I'm not sure how far down he was. He was previously at Ole Miss during the Orgeron era as TE Coach and recruiting coordinator.

http://olemiss.247sports.com/Article/BREAKING-NEWS-HUGH-FREEZE-HIRED- AS-NEW-OLE-MISS-HEAD-COACH-51714

He has been a HC for only three years total. The other two were at Lambuth. They had a 20-5 record under him.

From a win/loss record perspective he looks good. However, he has never lead a team of his recruits. So, it begs the question of can he build recruiting classes which will be important. He was the recruiting coordinator their during their best recruiting seasons, but we all know that position is administrative in nature and Orgeron was credited with building those classes so I'm not sure what to make of his time there.

So, it looks like a nice hire, but far from a home run. The fan base is getting behind him, but they aren't ecstatic. It's a "wait and see" hire.

Who?

Big Blue Mountaineer wrote:
Who?

Exactly...

Kind of what one would expect.....get a young successful coach at a lower level and see if he can work his magic in the SEC.

High risk/high reward, I suppose. There are some big names out there, but man, this is a bad year to try to hire a coach. Joker staying is REALLY good for us if even just because we would have been way down the pecking order finding a replacement.

Plus, the recruiting class stays intact. Tee sticks around, and while next year doesn't look 'good,' some development shown on the team would go a long way toward getting better later. I have no idea who we would have hired after Texas, UNC, Ole Miss, maybe Arkansas, UCLA, Arizona, Illinois, etc made their hires.

I couldn't agree more Casey. Once those jobs are filled it is going to create another round of vacancies which we might would be competing against. You could add Kansas and maybe MSU to the list of competition, and Texas could hire Petrino opening up Ark., like you mention, leading to someone heading to Ark. etc. There is just so much potential movement out there and we are sooo far down the list. The best coaches are going to wait it out for the better programs and now you have a situation where you are waiting 4-6 weeks to hire someone you want and by then your recruiting class is a mess.

I think that UT win has been HUGE for our program, even more than I imagined it would be and especially huge considering how much UT sucked this year. I don't think/know if Joker would have been fired if they had lost or lost bad, but the energy for recruiting and the good vibes are great.

I think Freeze is a good coach, but I'm a bit surprised Ole Miss had to drop down to hiring a guy from Arky State. I know they don't have the pedigree or national importance of Bama, LSU, UF, UGA or some of the other teams in the SEC, but the state of MS is a hotbed for recruiting and I think Ole Miss could regain some of their national glory if they were to ever get a power coach in there who is focused on recruiting. I just don't see Freeze being that guy.

Now granted, I don't know how far he was down their list, but given the number of other coaches whose names are being thrown around right now (Fedora, Sumlin, Strong, and numerous others from mid-major programs), I would be disappointed with this hire if I were an Ole Miss fan. Like others have said, I'm glad UK isn't trying to compete in the hiring market this year, b/c I think Ole Miss is a decent measuring stick for UK in football (although they have MUCH more history than UK and are likely an even more attractive option for most coaches) and if the best they could do right now is Freeze, then I would hate to see who we would have to hire.