Kellenberger: Latest response shows just how all-in Ole Miss is with Hugh Freeze

This is the story Ole Miss is now telling:

Barney Farrar? The definition of a rogue staff member, one who openly lied to his head coach about the existence of a burner phone.

The nine boosters now disassociated from the program? Ole Miss barely knew who the majority of them were, and even if they did were clearly more rogue elements with ties to Farrar.

And Leo Lewis, the former Ole Miss recruit (and current Mississippi State linebacker) whose interviews with the NCAA provided the most serious charges levied against Ole Miss? An unreliable witness whose story changes with the day, did not offer evidence and even admits to having taken $10,000 from another unnamed school.

But Hugh Freeze? Any violation he may have committed, Ole Miss suggests at one point in the response to the NCAA enforcement staff’s Notice of Allegations, was unintentional. He did everything he could to keep Ole Miss within the NCAA law, and if you don’t believe the school here’s at least 10 different character witnesses to speak on Freeze’s behalf.

The 125-page document released Tuesday is Ole Miss’ latest response to the NCAA allegations, and it paints the clearest picture yet of its best hopes and intentions for what will be the result of this five-year investigation.

Ole Miss will tell you it will give up a bowl game, and the accompanying $8 million. It’ll give up scholarships, too. It’ll admit that violations occurred. But if you’re going to go after Freeze and charge him with violating the head coach responsibility legislation, well then you’re in for a fight.

It’s important to remember that this response is crafted not unlike a defense attorney’s counter in a civil suit: it’s going to paint the client in the best possible light, by any means necessary (including defamation of the character of other parties involved). But the language is at its most defiant during the 13 pages spent defending Freeze.

“The allegation places an unfair burden on Freeze.”

“When issues went unreported, as (compliance director Matt) Ball recounted, Freeze was not afraid to publicly dress down coaches and call them to account for what had occurred.”

“Freeze has done the right things to monitor his program and promote rules compliance.”

More:Kellenberger: Freeze can jab, but critics can punch back

This is a bold move, one with so much risk it has astounded college football people who are used to universities being willing to dispose of the head coach in times of similar crisis.

The Committee on Infractions will meet later this year with both the enforcement staff and Ole Miss, and issue a final ruling. It could agree with the enforcement staff, go ahead with the charge on Freeze and make it very difficult (either through suspension or show-cause) for Ole Miss to keep him. In such a situation, Ole Miss’ full-throated defense of the head coach that won a Sugar Bowl and beat Alabama twice could influence its own institutional punishment.

Ole Miss would not be trying this if they did not think there was some chance it would work, and that Freeze could remain its head coach while dealing with punishments in the framework of the ones it has already levied on itself.

But what does that look like? Ole Miss went 5-7 last year, when it had the specter of the investigation hanging over it but nothing real. Now it has a bowl ban, and the investigation led to a lackluster recruiting class (and the prospects of another in 2018, at least).

More:Kellenberger: Ole Miss getting hammered by NCAA

Hugh Freeze or no Hugh Freeze, what’s Ole Miss’ on-field future? It’s not good, one of the (if not the) worst in the Southeastern Conference, in fact. And if that’s the case, how long until Freeze is on the hot seat and the powers that be that are fine with his compliance record are fuming about his win-loss record? Ole Miss has a history of overtly celebrating its head coaches in times of triumph, but David Cutcliffe and Houston Nutt can tell you first-hand just how quickly that same fanbase can turn.

But here are Ole Miss and Hugh Freeze, joined hand-in-hand as they step into the uncertain future. Whatever that may be, they’re going to do it together.