This week, a former Ole Miss head football coach will be in the Mississippi news a lot, as Southern Mississippi (1-3) is scheduled to play at Liberty University (5-0) this Saturday where Hugh Freeze is presently the head coach of the Flames. The Flames are on the verge on breaking into the Top 25. Freeze is in his second year as taskmaster of the Flames, and they are coming off a big win at Syracuse last week in the Carrier Dome. Freeze led the Christian university school to their first bowl and bowl win last season as they finished, 8-5, in their third year in playing in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) as an independent.
Freeze the individual is still a sore subject with many Ole Miss fans and Mississippians. Many Rebel fans may dislike him more than current Alabama U.S. Senator candidate Tommy Tuberville. The latter made the statement that he would never leave Oxford except in a pine box. Tuberville resigned two days later and headed to the Plains of Auburn without even leaving a goodbye note. Ole Miss fans labeled him a liar, while Freeze is called the hypocrite. Freeze also left Oxford without leaving an apology note behind which infuriated Rebel fans even more. He was rumored to lay the blame on others as he exited. Freeze, on the other hand, still has former staff members and fans who are very supportive of him. This phase of Freeze’s life may pass in time because big time football universities have short memories--especially when it comes to winning. Freeze is a proven winner that will be a hot commodity on this year’s Power 5 coaching searches. Though Freeze signed a five-year $2 million extension after last season with Liberty, his stay in Lynchburg may be short term.
MSU and OM looking up
As you scan the Western Division SEC standings, Ole Miss and MSU trail five others teams. The Rebels and Bulldogs are each 1-3. The Rebels turned the ball over seven times and came away with no points twice when they were sitting at the Arkansas 1-yard line in their 33-21 loss. The Rebels defense played their best game as they allowed Arkansas to score on only four of their twelve offensive possessions. That was a great improvement over the previous three games. The Rebels actually were still in the game until late in the final period despite playing such careless ball. The Rebels will host Auburn (2-2) at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Texas A&M used their offensive and defensive lines to dominate MSU last week. MSU did not play well on defense in the opening half, and the offense for the third straight week did not have any offensive rhythm for most of the game. True freshman Will Rogers may have won the starting quarterback job from graduate transfer K.J. Costello. Rogers came off the bench in the loss to Texas A&M and hit on 15-of-18 passes for 120 yards and a score. The big news was All-SEC running back Kylin Hill was suspended before the game by Mike Leach. State’s next game will be on Halloween night at Alabama.
USM’s game against UTEP was postponed last week after the Golden Eagles football team experienced an increase in C0VID-19 cases.
In JUCO football this past week, Northwest, Northeast, PRC and Hinds all won. This week, the key game will have two unbeaten teams as Northwest heads to Northeast.
The World Series begins Tuesday night with the L.A. Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays meeting in the 117thWorld Series. The city of Tampa, Florida, is excited in the thoughts of both possible World Series and Super Bowl titles in the upcoming months to go with their recent Stanley Cup Championship.
