Ole Miss pulled in a great recruiting class this year with Laquon Treadwell, Laremy Tunsil, and Robert Nkemdiche. Many ranked the last, Nkemidche, as the best recruit in the nation. All had offers from practically every school in the country, and all chose Ole Miss, despite the fact that it is and has been for some time an average football school. Particularly in the context of the SEC, Ole Miss wasn't moving the needle, except, oddly enough, for three of the best high school football players in the country.
It's probably on the right side of ethics, as far as football recruiting ever is—as detailed here and elsewhere, Robert Nkemdiche's mother wanted him to play with his brother at Ole Miss, and the dominoes largely fell into place after that—but people were talking anyway. So Hugh Freeze issued a (since deleted) challenge to the haters: Send any evidence you have of me cheating straight to the Ole Miss compliance office, and if it's credible, you'll know when I get fired.
Well, emails sent to addresses at public universities are public records, so the Memphis Commercial-Appeal requested them. The Ole Miss compliance office handed over 54, keeping 31 for themselves, explaining that they still needed to keep digging on those. So those 31 might not have been angry rantings from crazed college football fans. The rest? Angry rantings from crazed college football fans.
Some of the best of the harmless ones, courtesy of the Commercial-Appeal:
— "Go home Hugh, you're drunk."
— "Look I don't know who needs to know this but the rumor going around is that (redacted) and his mama are on the way there and she is wired. I know its probably a rumor and I know our school and our coach is doing no wrong but I just thought someone may want to know about this ahead of time. Just a concerned fan. Keep up the good work."
— "I graciously allowed (redacted) to walk on my ground, and he accepted my offer. (Redacted) stole my cookies at lunch. Also they both signed a letter of intent that I drew up on scratch paper, and signed with the University of Georgia."
— "Your football coach tweeted a request to send emails to your office with proof of recruiting violations. Any decent football player signing to play for your pathetic football team is all the proof needed."
— "Your coach is an idiot. Isn't that against some rule? How about all the (name redacted) family members in Ole Miss gear last nite at basketball game? I'm certain there is retail supplier of Rebel gear in (redacted) Fla. Good luck when NCAA rolls into town. You're gonna need it."
— "You need to do an in depth investigation of the recruitment of (redacted) and (redacted). Mr. (redacted) posted pies of a large amount of cash while he was on a recent visit to ole miss. Mr. (redacted) has been headed to either alabama or georgia for the last two years and in a week he suddenly wants to come to your trash pile of a college."
Mr. Redacted posted pies of a large amount of cash while on a recruiting visit and we missed it? Suspect, to say the least.
Ole Miss Football Coach Hugh Freeze Asked For Emails, And Did They Ever Come [Memphis Commercial-Appeal]