Consider what brought us here
Nutts legal team wouldve never requested an FOIA of Freezes phone records if Freeze hadnt, according to Nutts attorneys, tried to dump rumors of NCAA allegations onto Nutts Ole Miss staff, allegedly to save face in recruiting in January 2016.
And Freeze probably wouldnt have (allegedly) buried Nutt to the press, had the NCAA not shown up in Oxford to work an investigation that started with Nutts former director of football operations falsifying ACT scores.
And Nutt wouldve never been the head coach at Ole Miss if not for his own public records missteps at Arkansas, revealed 10 years ago this summer. Those gaffes made him a dent-and-scratch sale item for AD Boone, who grabbed Nutt in 2008 despite loud warnings from Fayetteville. (If you take nothing else from Thursdays events, know Hogville. Was. Right.)
Over the next four years, Boone would privately convey genuine shock at Nutts deceptive practices and gross inefficiency, as if hed forgotten how the coach landed in Oxford in the first place. Nutt was the best available candidate after the school had mismanaged the wildly inexperienced Ed Orgeron for three losing seasons.
Dont forget Orgeron was hired in 2004 because Ole Miss fired the consistent-but-never-elite David Cutcliffe after the Eli Manning era expired. Cutcliffe was a package deal in Mannings recruitment to replace Tommy Tuberville in 1999. A few years ago, Tuberville told me he left Ole Miss because Auburn promised him better resources, even after coming back to the Rebels to see if theyd promise the same support.
Lastly: Ole Miss hired Tuberville in 1995 because it needed a rebuild after massive NCAA sanctions for recruiting violations.
