Well, I didn’t until you tried to make a point that Freeze was essentially an equivalent to Lane Kiffin. Now that might very well end up being true if Kiffin gets caught cheating, has to retroactively forfeit 27 games (making him 12-25 in his time at Ole Miss), and is forced to resign in lieu of being fired with no buyout. Until then, though, Kiffin appears to be the better coach.
What does any of that stuff have to do with actual coaching? Similar records at similar places, and now he sucks at Auburn. Stands to reason that Kiffin could suck elsewhere too.
No, I really do. He was fired for losing coupled with getting caught (key language) cheating in recruiting. To avoid paying his buyout, Ole Miss brought up some evidence that he solicited high-end call girls while on recruiting trips, which I doubt they would have cared about if he was still winning.
Uftaipan, I just heard he bought a bunch of players. It was also a bit interesting how a projected first round draft choice, one of Hughs kids, had a spurned GF or somebody post the kid wearing a reefer "Gas Mask" that resulted in him tumbling down the draft order. I don't remember the kids name. Kinda reflected how Freeze was running the program.
Laremy Tunsil was his name if memory serves. Someone, most likely an agent of Bama, leaked video of him smoking out while he was being drafted. Then the dumbass straight-up admitted to getting paid while at Ole Miss. But, again, probably would not have a been a problem had Freeze kept winning. Once the winning stopped, so did the institutional protection.
There is a story I read a couple years ago about Freeze at Ole Miss that put the theory out there that Dan Mullen was behind Freeze getting busted by the NCAA, which led to other discoveries that in turn cost him his job. The story states Mullen encouraged former OM recruits who were at MS to come forward and give statements to the NCAA regarding recruiting violations. There was even a lawsuit against Mullen and Stricklin alleging that they conspired to bring down the OM football program. Crazy stuff.
Year 5 Freeze had a losing record 5-7 Year 5 Kiffin is undefeated and ranked in top 10. Yea they're records are comparable. Kiffin turned down the job that Freeze was happy to take.
We're only a few games into year five, so we don't yet know the results for Kiffin. He's only beaten up on cupcakes thus far and won't see a ranked team for another month. In addition, he's supposed to lose a lot of players next year. If he does stay at Ole Miss then we'll see if they continue to be similar or diverge.
When this happens, the IRS needs to step in and charge him taxes. That would have stopped kids from telling on their school for paying them (when it was illegal).
I knew something was up with Freeze when Tunsil, from Lake City, an hour from Gainesville and less than two hours from Tallahassee spurned both UF and fsu to go to Ole Miss. Made no sense for him to go there.
Gus made some bad choices and the administration and the fans turned against him...and now he is building a powerhouse at UCF.
Freeze has one of the best recruiting classes and he got almost all of his needs met in the portal. The problem is at the QB position. Auburn has the worst group of QBs in the SEC. None would even be a backup anywhere else. He landed a few of the best receivers too so it's wasting talent by not getting a better QB from the portal. Auburn has the same issue at QB as we have at OL, we both can't seem to find any competent players.
This is a bigger issue that I have thought about. Maybe there is only so much room at the top for good teams. I'm talking like there are only 15 teams (maybe less) or so that have a chance to win a natty. There is a finite number of elite coaches (recruiters) and there is a finite number of elite HS players QB included. Without a HS draft, the teams that get most of the talent and have one of those coaches is going to have the most success. If we get one of those coaches AND convince those elite players (linemen) to come to UF, that necessarily means that another team will fall back. Right now, we are the team that is in the back. The portal helps some but it's not enough to even the playing field entirely but you can get a flash in the pan here and there - ala FSU last year.
