1. Former Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze is a damn good football coach.
2. Good enough for quite a few schools in the SEC to overlook his recent misdeeds in effort to create a spot for Freeze on their own staffs.
3. Schools like Missouri.

Alabama was one of at least five SEC schools that had contact with Freeze about on-field jobs this offseason. Saban wanted to hire Freeze as a co-offensive coordinator and position coach, sources told AL.com.

However, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey encouraged Alabama not to hire a man as well known for the personal shortcomings that led to his Ole Miss resignation as he is for his success as a coach. [...]

Multiple SEC schools looked into hiring Freeze as their offensive coordinator, including LSU and Missouri, but no deal was ever reached primarily because of the league’s opposition, according to sources. Freeze was publicly linked to the Missouri offensive coordinator position before Barry Odom hired former Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley. [...]

Roger I. Abrams, the Richardson Professor of Law at Northeastern University, says the SEC bylaw doesn’t legally prevent a school from hiring someone like Freeze -- a school could have its president make a case to Sankey on why it wants to hire him -- but “it’s exactly what the SEC wanted to happen.”

I very much enjoyed Freeze’s take on the spread offense, even though the running game often left something to be desired. But I can’t say I’m even slightly broken-hearted that this didn’t work out. Freeze played incredibly fast and loose with NCAA recruiting rules, and while I don’t feel as stringent about those rules as I once did, his “quote Bible verses, then lie about what you’re doing” act wasn’t particularly impressive. He shouldn’t be blackballed from the SEC forever, probably, but a year? Yeah I’m okay with a year.

Congrats in advance to Freeze for getting hired by Alabama in 2019, though.

Yesterday at Rock M

More Links:

• It’s a big week in As the Ramey Turns: in-house visits from Texas, Missouri, and ... Louisville? They’re back in it? (Why yes, Sam will have a post about this later today...)

• Mark Smith has officially signed.

• PowerMizzou talked to Mizzou signee Daniel Parker Jr. and his high school coach, Kelly Donohoe.
• The first of five Mizzou Baseball home games in a row comes tonight against Chicago State. The Cougars are 5-27 and 0-12 in WAC play, so this should absolutely be a win, but ... well ... it better be a win. Mizzou has lost five of six in conference play and can’t let a mid-week battle slip right now.
• IT’S CARAVAN TIME.
• The ROARS were last night. I’m assuming a Mizzou Network video is coming soon enough, but here are some of the big winners. Look at Hayden Buckley pulling the upset on Drew Lock...

• Former Tiger Tramaine Isabell on the Philadelphia Starbucks incident: