It's Time to Show Freeze the Money

Time for a cash shower.

by Jake Adams

The Clarion Ledger's Hugh Kellenberger reports that Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork and coaching agent Jimmy Sexton are in active talks renegotiating Hugh Freeze's contract. Freeze surpassed expectations in his first year as Ole Miss head coach, leading a group that had finished 2-10 the year before and was on a record-long SEC losing streak to a 6-6 record, an Egg Bowl victory and a bowl game. It also happens that there remain three SEC coaching vacancies as of this writing - Auburn, Tennessee and Arkansas. Sexton also represented Houston Nutt and parlayed openings at other schools into Nutt's $6 million travesty of a contract that Ole Miss will be paying from now into forever unless Nutt gets another head coaching job (will never happen).

Houston Nutt wasn't Jimmy Sexton's fault. Ole Miss has nobody to blame for Houston Nutt but Ole Miss - and Nutt.

Just because Ole Miss got burned by Nutt, doesn't mean it should sit on its hands with Freeze. If I was Bjork I would be renegotiating Freeze's contract as well. Freeze has something special. An "it" quality. You can see it. Ole Miss has to keep him. Plus, it's business as usual in the SEC to reward the head coach for a good season, make him feel the love and hope your good thing doesn't get snatched away by another suitor.

To Freeze's credit, he told Kellenberger he wasn't looking for a raise.

“I do know that they have talked and I have not one time said I needed anything,” Freeze said. “If they decide to do that for me and my staff, that’s great. But I’m very indebted to have the job I have and looking forward to continuing to build and the last thing I want to do right now is act like I deserve something.”

It's a good thing Freeze has an agent. Freeze has the lowest base salary in the SEC for a head coach at $1.5 million. He won six games at Ole Miss. It's time to pay up.