Hugh Freeze to South Carolina? Here’s what Ray Tanner, Freeze himself had to say
Even before South Carolina officially moved on from football coach Will Muschamp this Sunday, there was one controversial name being connected to the Gamecocks’ job with increasing frequency — Hugh Freeze.
Formerly at Ole Miss, now with Liberty, Freeze has been the subject of increasing interest and scrutiny in the coaching market as he has quickly built the Flames up and has them at 8-0 and ranked No. 21 in the country in 2020.
But he has a checkered past in the SEC marked by a sex scandal and allegations of cheating at Ole Miss that led to his unceremonious ouster, and AL.com reported that conference commissioner Greg Sankey pushed schools not to hire Freeze two years ago due to his history.
Still, a successful, offensive-minded head coach with experience in the SEC — including a couple wins over mighty Alabama — is a tempting candidate for just about any school in South Carolina’s position. So it was little surprise Monday that both Freeze and USC athletic director Ray Tanner were asked about the connections being drawn between the two in their respective news conferences.
“I’m not going to speak to any particular candidates. Nobody is ruled out,” Tanner said when asked directly if Freeze was being considered for the position. “We’ll be looking at a long list of candidates and that work started last night. So at this point we will consider a lot of different people, and now we’re in the process of narrowing the list down.”
Tanner also indicated that off-the-field issues, one of the primary concerns with a candidate like Freeze, will be taken into account — but he also didn’t say how heavily it would weigh in South Carolina’s search.
“They’re always an issue. I mean ... everything has to be vetted out. There’s a vetting process in the SEC, also a vetting process with the NCAA, if that’s what you’re referring to. That’s part of the protocol in hiring a coach, not just in football but in other sports as well,” Tanner said.
Freeze, for his part, has declined to publicly entertain any interest in any other job, which is to be expected during the middle of the season with his current team. His response Monday was more of the same.
“You can keep asking, but my total focus is on our kids and Liberty University and building this program,” Freeze said when asked about the South Carolina job, according to A Sea of Red. “That’s the answer you’re going to get if you ask this week, next week, or the following week. I don’t know how else I can address it. I’ve addressed it 10 times and said it would take something very, very special for me to even consider it, and I don’t know that even that would do it, me considering it.”
South Carolina won’t be the only school to come calling after Freeze, though. He’ll likely have options moving into the offseason and beyond, and one of the SEC’s preeminent media voices, Paul Finebaum, pointed out Monday in a radio interview that Freeze might decide to hold out on South Carolina if he believes another job in the SEC he likes better will come available.
“Nobody knows the SEC like Hugh Freeze. He not only knows what’s available today, but he’s looking next year to see what’s available then. You can do the math on what could come open. You have to weigh, do I want to go to South Carolina and be in Clemson’s shadow. Or, do I wait for what may be a better job next year, or more than one job next year,” Finebaum said on ‘The Roundtable’ on WJOX 94.5 in Birmingham, Alabama.
“By the way, we’re not talking about Vanderbilt in this conversation. I don’t know if that job will come open or not. He’s looking at the bigger schools that could come open next year.”
Specifically, Finebaum cited Tennessee and Auburn as two programs that could be more appealing to Freeze. Still, he put Freeze as a top priority of Tanner’s in the search, even with Tanner’s good relationship with Sankey and Sankey’s reported moves against Freeze.
“I think it’s great that everyone has gone into the SEC by-laws to let the SEC know what they can or can’t do here. I think this is something that Ray Tanner already knows,” Finebaum said. “I don’t know the answer to that, but I know the sentiment is very heavily towards Hugh Freeze right now.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 12:54 PM.
