Oxford, MS – Ole Miss has named Hugh Freeze its new head football coach.
Freeze spent just one season as head coach at Arkansas State and guided the Red Wolves to a record of 10-2 with a Sun Belt championship and a berth in the GoDaddy.com Bowl.
The Rebels completed the 2011 campaign at 2-10, including an 0-8 mark in the powerful SEC, in Houston Nutt's fourth and final season. Nutt was informed of his dismissal in early November and finished the campaign.
Ole Miss went 9-4 with Cotton Bowl victories in each of Nutt's first two years, but followed with a 4-8 mark in 2010 before this season's struggle. The Rebels are also riding a school-record 14-game SEC losing streak.
Freeze will try to turn around the floundering program, much like he did at Arkansas State. The Red Wolves were just 4-8 in 2010, a season in which Freeze served as offensive coordinator, but in 2011 reached 10 wins for the first time since 1986, when ASU was a member of the I-AA (now FCS) Southland Conference.
The Red Wolves also finished 8-0 in Sun Belt action and will play in a bowl game for the first time since 2005. Freeze became the 14th FBS first-year coach to win 10 regular-season games.
Prior to his brief stint at Arkansas State, Freeze compiled a 20-5 record in 2008 and 2009 as head coach at NAIA Lambuth University.
