Ole Miss football coach Hugh Freeze resigned Thursday amid reports that he used a school-issued cell phone to contact an escort service.
The school confirmed the resignation, with assistant Matt Luke taking over in the interim.
ANNOUNCEMENT | Hugh Freeze has resigned effective immediately. Matt Luke interim head coach. Press conference live at 7:30 PM CT on ESPNews.
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) July 20, 2017
Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports initially reported Thursday that “explosive new information” could cost Freeze his job.
Y sources: Explosive new information has put Ole Miss football coach Hugh Freeze's job in immediate jeopardy. A decision should come soon.
— Pat Forde (@YahooForde) July 20, 2017
According to Forde, phone records showed that Freeze had made a one-minute phone call with his school-issued cell phone to a phone number linked to a Florida-based escort service. Freeze told Yahoo! Sports that he had no recollection of the call, chose not to redact it from his public records, and believes it may have been a misdial.
“I’ve got no idea, to be honest,” Freeze said. “It was an 813 area code and that was a 313 number, I think that might have been a misdial. I don’t think there was even a conversation. There’s nothing to it.
“If I was trying to hide something, I would have. That call shows up nowhere else on my records. There is no story to that one.”
Ole Miss has been the subject of an extensive NCAA investigation alleging numerous rules violations, including offering money to recruits and players and fixing test scores. Freeze adding this scandal to the pile is not optimal.
