Well, if they are still trying to tell the NCAA that this is all some big mistake and that they are innocent, then you are correct. And while that is what they are saying in the public, I bet that they are licking the boots of the infractions team right now.
He cheated - that was known with or without the escorts. The escorts change nothing for me. I would ask his wife - if you knew that your husband was cheating this much as a coach, why are you surprised to learn that he was cheating on you?
Granted, their response was released before Hugh was canned, but their response continued the narrative they've tried to get people to believe since the news first broke.
They are too arrogant ----------and lie too much. They have been caught by the NCAA in so many lies, it is a little too late for contrition now. And Mars is uncovering more and more stuff everyday. There is no telling how many people are looking at phone records. And there is no telling how many different phone numbers all those people know. I've got a suspicion something will break in the next few days that will implicate some of those still left who thought they had been able to stay out of the mud.
In EVERY response to the NCAA from Ole Miss and public statement they've made (including at the press conference announcing his firing), they have expressed confidence in his compliance program and defended him against the allegations. They are trying to say that his firing was over moral turpitude issues only and has nothing to do it with the NCAA mess. Granted, it is seldom wise to change your defense strategy on the eve of a trial, but I think it makes Ole Miss look silly, proclaiming his moral failures while sitting beside him next month in front of the Committee on Infractions as they extol his integrity at the same time. Perhaps they will change strategy and try to nudge him under the bus at the COI hearing, but that doesn't appear to be the case.
They were willing to throw every other former coach under the bus. It would actually follow the pattern that they have already established. I think that they put this all on Freeze and people no longer associated with the program. The NCAA has made it clear that they are not going to brush off the infractions. Time for damage control. Probably too late to matter, but I would bet that they are going to try.
They're in a tricky spot. The "lack of institutional control" charge is really the biggie here, and it is really hard to assert such control exists if they have to admit that new evidence has surfaced in past 45 days putting Freeze at the center of these violations after years of steadfast denials and solidarity between the school and the coach. Taking that approach would almost be an outright admission that a lack of institutional control did indeed exist.
Yep - the question is, do they believe that they are getting slammed for this no matter what they say. If they do, they throw themselves on the mercy of the committee. If they think that they have a chance, they keep up the trickery.
I think most Ole Miss people simply want it over, no matter how bad it is. There is likely a fear that any "new evidence" implicating Freeze in the violations that might be "discovered" at this late hour would probably reopen the investigative phase, keep it open longer, and perhaps prolong the rebuilding on the other side. Freeze himself could ask for an extension to defend himself (imagine trying to hire a coach with this stuff unresolved). But I think that the AD, Bjork, is really the one at the most risk now. He thumbed his nose at this investigation for the better part of 3 years by minimizing it and pointing the finger at Nutt, wrapped himself and his institution's defense around the unimpeachable integrity of Freeze, and rolled the dice that Freeze's popularity with the fans and his winning would carry them through whatever happened. Now...not only was all that wrong, but Freeze was apparently using school-issued phones to commandeer ladies of the night all the while. If Bjork doesn't wind up taking the fall for this, he's a Houdini for sure!
The problem I have with "witnesses" like this is:
Y'all dropping your recruitment of him turned out to be a stroke of genius. Kid is poison.
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