OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss head football coach Hugh Freeze has resigned his position effective immediately.
Assistant head coach Matt Luke has been named interim head coach.
The school has been under a cloud of an NCAA investigation, but Freeze’s resignation isn’t related to that.
In a news conference, athletic director Ross Bjork said a phone call Freeze made unearthed a pattern of personal misconduct. He explained they released six days of Freeze’s work-related calls as part of a response to a public record request; Freeze redacted his personal calls, but a less-than-one-minute call to a certain number, which hadn’t been redacted, drew attention.
Bjork didn’t elaborate on the nature of the call, but ESPN reports the number is associated with a female escort service.
Officials at first suspect the call was the result of dialing a wrong number, but Bjork said they then found a “concerning pattern” of conduct when they looked through the rest of his phone records. Freeze admitted to the calls, Bjork said.
Though Freeze resigned, Bjork said if he hadn’t, he would have been fired. There’s a termination clause in his contract for “moral turpitude.”
Bjork said he will not be getting a buyout or settlement.
Freeze had been the Rebels’ coach for five seasons. The team starts practice in a week.
