Ole Miss football isn’t what it was 10 years ago. Ole Miss football isn’t what it was five years ago. The program is in its best position since Johnny Vaught roamed the Rebel sideline. They’re not the doormat of the SEC anymore, and it’s driving people insane.
What Hugh Freeze has done at Ole Miss in his four years is unprecedented. He changed the culture of a program that was dead. He made Ole Miss football a national brand. He recruited like nobody in the history of Ole Miss football has recruited. He made Ole Miss more than a punch line.
Ole Miss is new. They’re not Alabama, LSU or Ohio State. They haven’t won a national title in the past 30 years. They don’t have conference championships galore in their trophy case. They’re not the blue-bloods of college football, so their success leaves people puzzled and confused.
Many are puzzled and confused because, for the longest time, Ole Miss fans and administration were okay with winning six or seven games a year and making the Liberty Bowl, and now they’re not. Ole Miss has a coach that legitimately believes he can win big at Ole Miss. Ole Miss, for the first time in my 22 years on this earth, is committed to being more than the sixth-place team in the SEC West.
So, opposing fans throw around accusations regarding Ole Miss. They say that they’re paying recruits. They say that they’ve done most everything illegally.
They don’t realize Beverly Nkemdiche wanted her son, and consensus No. 1 prospect Robert Nkemdiche, to play with her other son Denzel. They don’t take time to realize that Laquon Treadwell’s high school teammate Anthony Standifer was in Oxford during his recruitment. They don’t realize Laremy Tunsil was always interested in Ole Miss. Always.
This year, they didn’t realize Ole Miss was a fluke lateral play from winning the SEC West. They refuse to acknowledge Ole Miss played in the Sugar Bowl and dominated. That’s taboo to them; Ole Miss should just be Ole Miss.
The recent NCAA investigation hasn’t helped Ole Miss in the public perception realm, sure. That being said, the investigation reportedly has nothing to do with Ole Miss paying players, the oft-used allegation by opposing fans. It concerns some academic misconduct during Houston Nutt’s tenure, some secondary violations and the Laremy Tunsil saga from last fall. It has nothing to do with Ole Miss and rumored bagmen roaming the streets of Starkville.
The NCAA investigation is huge for some programs, however, because it’s their only way to slow Ole Miss down. The NCAA investigation is huge for others, because they can’t stand the see the apple cart upset in college football.
Opposing fans will have their accusations of Ole Miss and their program so long as the Rebels are successful. Rival fans will accuse Ole Miss of cheating until they’re blue in the face. They don’t matter. At all. Message board heroes don’t matter. At all.
So, Ole Miss will keep doing what they’re doing. They’ll keep recruiting at an elite level. They’ll keep being a force to be reckoned with in the landscape of college football, and they’ll keep pissing people off. The Rebels are relevant in college football, and they’re not going anywhere.
