Article on Freeze

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While Nutt never completely seemed to grasp the state's culture -- especially the Egg Bowl rivalry -- Freeze jumped into the fray unabashedly. He went to high school less than 45 miles away in Senatobia, Miss.

"This is home to me," Freeze said. "This is a destination job."

He's known for a high-powered offensive philosophy, that he called a "fundamentally efficient scoring machine" when it's going well.

Freeze is a Southern Mississippi graduate, but has Ole Miss ties, serving as an assistant under then-Rebels' coach Ed Orgeron from 2005 through 2007. During that time, he coached receivers, tight ends and also served as the program's recruiting coordinator. He had a 20-5 record as head coach at NAIA-level Lambuth (Tenn.) in 2008 and 2009.

After his successful two-year stint at Lambuth, he joined Arkansas State's staff as the offensive coordinator in 2010. The Red Wolves broke nine offensive records that season and ranked second in the Sun Belt in total offense, but head coach Steve Roberts was fired after a 4-8 season.

Freeze was promoted and the Red Wolves took a dramatic step forward this fall, finishing undefeated in the Sun Belt. They finished first in the league in scoring offense, scoring defense, total offense and total defense. His high-powered, spread offense has worked everywhere it's been, though it's never been tested against SEC competition.

The Ole Miss coaching search was led by a five-person committee, including former Rebel quarterback Archie Manning and FedEx executive Mike Glenn.

Glenn said Freeze's combination of innovative offensive thinking, recruiting ability and communicating skills made him the obvious choice.

"Once we completed our interviews, our No. 1 choice was crystal clear," Glenn said. "Our No. 1 choice was Hugh Freeze."

Manning said Freeze's lack of experience wasn't a huge factor: "He's someone coming up, doing it the right way and doing it with success. We think we're jumping the gun and getting an outstanding coach."

Freeze has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the coaching ranks over the last decade from a high school coach to the Southeastern Conference.

He worked at Briarcrest High School in Memphis, Tenn., for 13 years, including as the head football coach from 1995 to 2004. He amassed a 99-23 record and won two state championships, but was mostly known as the high school coach for left tackle Michael Oher, who was later featured in the best-selling book and popular movie "The Blind Side."

Just seven years later, he's in a conference that is guaranteed to win its sixth straight national championship in January. Ole Miss hasn't shared that success, with a 1-15 in the SEC over the past two seasons, but that didn't deter Freeze from expecting immediate success.

"These men are tired of being in the wilderness and they want to get out," Freeze said.