More information has emerged regarding the Hugh Freeze scandal at Ole Miss, and a new report points to the former football coach establishing a pattern of making escort service-type phone calls while on recruiting trips.
Freeze resigned as the head coach at Ole Miss last month amid a report that he made phone call to an escort service. Freeze tried to dismiss the phone call as being the product of a misdial. However, Ole Miss said upon doing a closer examination of the coach’s phone record, they discovered a pattern of similar calls being made.
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal’s Andrew Beaton wrote about that pattern. According to his story, Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork told Beaton that the phone calls tended to happen when Freeze was using the school plane on recruiting trips.
Beaton writes that the phone calls were “often matching up with travel logs showing the coach’s use of the school plane. The school said it examined his travel logs from peak recruiting times—often November, December and January—when Freeze would travel out of state, using the school plane and other public resources.
“When we say pattern, we are describing other phone numbers that when you Google them pull up similar type websites, services, however you would describe them,” Bjork said. “We took action swiftly.”
Freeze resigned upon being approached with the information. The school would have fired him on moral grounds had he not stepped down.
Ole Miss enjoyed plenty of success under Freeze. The 47-year-old went 39-25 over five seasons, including two wins over Alabama and a 3-1 bowl record.
