Hugh Freeze knew what he had to do when he arrived in Oxford in December of 2011.
He knew what was necessary if he was going to win at Ole Miss. He knew what he had to do in recruiting.
“When you talk about recruiting, our coaches will clearly understand that we are establishing dynamic relationships with everyone that is involved in our decision making process,” new head football coach Hugh Freeze said at his introductory press conference in Dec. 2011. “We will win a championship. We have to win the state in recruiting and it will start with great coaches.”
Ole Miss won the state on Wednesday. They signed three of the top five— nobody else had more than one. They signed four-star defensive lineman Benito Jones from Waynesboro. They signed four-star tight end Octavious Cooley.
The Rebels went into Starkville and got a signature from highly coveted receiver A.J. Brown.
Brown said that Ole Miss recruited him the hardest of any school. They didn’t concede immediately because he was from Starkville. They made him a priority. They got him to leave Starkville.
They signed four-star receiver DeKaylin Metcalf from Oxford.
Brown said, in response to him and Metcalf playing together, “It’s finna get ugly, that’s all I can say.”
Ole Miss won a lot more than Mississippi on Wednesday.
They went national. They fought Alabama. They fought Florida State. They fought Texas A&M. They won some, they lost some. Freeze said that getting kids to visit makes them want to come back.
And some did come back.
They signed the best quarterback in the country, Shea Patterson.
“If you’re going to build a championship team, I think you start at quarterback, and obviously we feel like we have the best one in the nation in Shea Patterson,” Freeze said.
They signed No. 2 overall prospect Greg Little from Texas, according to scout.com, to be the heir apparent of Laremy Tunsil. They signed two highly-rated players in Deontay Anderson and D’Vaughn Pennamon out of Texas A&M’s backyard.
They signed highly-touted wide receiver Tre Nixon out of Florida. Jacob Mathis, a four-star tight end, also pledged with the Rebels.
The class drew comparisons to the Rebels’ 2013 recruiting class, where they landed five-stars Robert Nkemdiche, Laremy Tunsil and Laquon Treadwell. Fairly or unfairly, that is how the class will be judged.
“It is top to bottom the best class that we have had, and we’ve had some good ones,” Freeze said.
So, we’ll see. Many members of this class won’t be on campus again until June. It’s 205 days until the Ole Miss vs. Florida State kickoff in Orlando. Nobody won a football game on Wednesday.
But Ole Miss did win. They reminded a nation they’re relevant. They proved they’re going to compete for the SEC Western Division Championship. They continued to prove that as long as Hugh Freeze is at Ole Miss, they’re a force to be reckoned with in the college football landscape. Ole Miss has made people mad. Ole Miss is accused of recruiting improprieties every day. That didn’t happen four years ago when Hugh Freeze took the podium.
“I know we’ve changed the narrative in college football,” Freeze said on Paul Finebaum’s show Wednesday afternoon. “And people don’t like it.”
Top 5 Recruiting classes in the SEC
1. Alabama
2. LSU
3. Ole Miss
4. Georgia
5. Auburn
Bottom 5
10. South Carolina
11. Mississippi State
12.Kentucky
13. Missouri
14. Vanderbilt
