Thursday, October 12, 2017

Nutt wants a rematch with Ole Miss.

Former Ole Miss Head Football Coach Houston Nutt, Jr. sued Ole Miss, IHL, and the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation in Lafayette County Circuit Court yesterday for breach of contract.  He filed a similar lawsuit in federal court but it was dismissed due to lack of jurisdiction. The lawsuit accuses Athletic Director Ross Bjork and Coach Hugh Freeze of defaming Nutt to the media.  This court fight has claimed its share of casualties, including the job of one Hugh Freeze.


Houston Nutt was the Head Football Coach from 2008 to 2011.  He compiled a record of 24-26 but lost his last twelve SEC games.  Ole Miss fired him and signed a severance agreement.  The complaint states:

The University further agrees to direct members of the control groups for the Foundation and for UM not to make any statement relative to Nutt's tenure as an employee that may damage or harm Nutt's reputation  as a football  coach." 

The NCAA has been investigating the Ole Miss football program for several years.  The media first reported on the investigation in 2014.  Nutt accused Ole Miss officials of trying to deflect blame from Coach Freeze by smearing Nutt.  The NCAA eventually charged Ole Miss and Coach Freeze with a lack of institutional control.   The complaint states that Ole Miss hired a crisis management firm in the fall of 2014 to assist in managing coverage of the scandal.

The alleged defamation began during the weekend of October 4, 2014.  That was probably the biggest football weekend to hit Oxford since the 2003 LSU game.  Top-ranked Alabama was coming to town and Coach Freeze took advantage of all the hoopla to make it a big recruiting weekend as well. Quite a few sports journalists visited Oxford to cover the big game.  Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports was one of them and interviewed Mr. Bjork.  Mr. Forde reported on October 2:

Multiple sources told Yahoo Sports the Mississippi football and women's basketball programs are subjects of the investigation. One source with knowledge of the probe said the bulk of the potential violations relate to women's basketball. The source said the current football staff of head coach Hugh Freeze is not believed to be implicated in any major violations, and that much of the football inquiry dates back to actions by a previous Ole Miss staff. Freeze is in his third year at the school.
The article was repeated or quoted by numerous websites.  Nutt accuses Bjork, several Athletic Department employees, and Coach Freeze of violating the severance agreement by making false statements about Nutt to the media or "authorizing" others to do so.  "Bjork's PR team" allegedly "activated its network of fan base journalists" to smear Ford and question his integrity.  The chief target of Nutt's "fan base journalists" allegations is Neal McReady.  See p. 16 for a full discussion of his alleged role.

The lawsuit is posted below and contains quite a few juicy accusations.  Pour a drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy.






28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Assigned to Howorth. Nutt is busted.

Anonymous said...


HUGH FREEZE'S WOUND WAS SELF INFLICTED !!!!!!

HE IS A CHEATER IN THE HIGHEST FORM !!!!!

Anonymous said...

I hear tell that there is another bombshell to drop in the coming days.

Kingfish said...

Heard that one before.

Anonymous said...

Hey, all caps and exclamation crazy at 10:57, calm down or you'll blow a gasket. Unless you are perfect and without sin or were in the room to witness, please stop.
Unfortunate that Mr. Nutt can't move on. He is damaging himself further.

Anonymous said...

It's high time that Mississippi State (Mullen's record 4-25 record against ranked teams since being HC @ State), Ole Miss and USM hire black head coaches. This has gone on entirely too long and it is time that this State understands that #BlackHeadCoachesLivesMatter too.

When is our legislature going to get involved and FORCE these public Universities to "do the right thing"! Most of us in this State are fed up with Ole Miss, but also just as fed up with Mississippi State and USM acting as if they are on the high road in so far as HCoaching opportunities at the leading Universities in this State. All 3 should be ashamed at what should have happened much too long ago. And MSU fans don't need to bring up the past hiring of Coach Sylvester Croom in this conversation. He was never given a real shot at success at MSU. That hire was just window-dressing for the NCAA so that they would give a lighter penalty to MSU for their cheating ways.

Let's all get behind forcing, by legislative action or any other means, our major Universities to hire black Head Coaches and show this nation that Mississippi is better than all the other States in the US combined!!!

Anon-E-Mouse said...

@12:11. Moo U have a black head coach. Affirmative Action doesn’t matter when you are a losing coach and blown out by the landsharps

Anonymous said...

And bring the halftime show with them too!

Anonymous said...

12:11, here is a novel idea, hire the best qualified coach, regardless of color.

Anonymous said...

@12:11 - name me one black coach that has produced a national championship in major college football. I'm not saying that it can't be done, but if history is any indicator, it's highly unlikely. You are smoking a crack pipe if you think that we are going to legislate that major universities have to hire a certain color coach. Affirmative action has been proven that it doesn't work. Just like with any job in any industry, the best qualified, most capable person should be hired for a head coaching job. Right now, that is Nick Saban, but he ain't leaving Alabama until he's good and ready. You are obviously out of your mind!!

Anonymous said...

Anyone who doesn't understand that 12:11 is a troll trying to rile y'all up is too dumb to be allowed to comment.

Anonymous said...

Croom was a good man, I had several friends play under him. He helped his players both current and former. An SEC football coach he was not. Carry on.

Anonymous said...

1:26pm...YOU may WISH that I was a troll, but just because you say that I am doesn't make it so!

Again, we are WAY PAST DUE in this State to hiring/giving a chance to qualified black head coaches. And our 3 highest profile Universities (USM, MSU & OM)should made to make this move in this direction.

1:26pm...You need to face the facts...we have arrived to this option within our State because of the courage of the Obamas and other black leaders within our State. It's Time!!!

Kingfish said...

Croom had no business being hired. He was a position coach. He was not an OC. Position coaches who make the jump to head coach rarely work out.

Example: Orgeron and yeah, I know who he coaches for. AD had to tell him last week to leave the coordinators alone and that is coming from a joke of an AD.

Anonymous said...

Miss State hired Croom years ago. The first SEC school to do so. He was a good man, but terrible head coach.

Anonymous said...


11:52, I'm not perfect or without sin but I would never cheat on my wife and children or my associates.

GROW UP AH !!!!!!

Anonymous said...

2:07pm...There have been many thousands upon thousands of white head coaches that have been busts over these many years...BUT you don't hear folks downing any whites' abilities for the HC jobs of the future.

So just because Croom failed @ MSU (& he never had the full MSU support)doesn't mean that a black HC shouldn't be looked at for MSU again! It IS time for MSU to look at another black HC hiring because all that Dan Mullen has done is beat Ole Miss on occasion and that seems to be the only thing that satisfies the majority of the MSU alumnae since he doesn't seem to be able to beat the majority of the other ranked teams MSU plays. Prove me wrong here if you can. Ole Miss and USM need to follow suit too!!!

Maroon is the only color that matters said...

HEY. Lay off Coach Sly Croom. He was a fine man then as Coach at MSU just as he is a fine man today. He was what MSU needed when "King" Jackie lost control of the team. If you look back now, that "loss of control" pales to the Hugh Freeze era of facemask bongs, falling out of 4th story hotel room windows, beating up frat boys, PROSTITUTION....and on and on it goes in the shark infested fields. I don't know if "King" Jackie ever finalized his dealings with the NCAA over the Rebel induced "investigation", if not I'd like to see him piling on with Nutt.

Anonymous said...

Hey 2:31
I've got a great idea.
Maybe JSU could hire a white football coach?
Alcorn did and won !

Didn't Murrah hire a white basketball coach several years
ago and the parents, players and others ( non-white) protest his hire?

Anonymous said...

10:57 / 2:22, more caps and exclamations, was that a mild stroke? And now you've regressed to juvenile phrasing. Relax, Coach Freeze's sins, your sins and my sins are looked at no differently.

Anonymous said...

Some crazed imbecile actually wants to make this about Mullen? Old Myth invented this Nutt-Creature and he is their's to deal with, Starkpatch notwithstanding. the Land-Bears wish they had the last three coaches back.

Anonymous said...

This is a trap. No one in their right mind wants to touch Ole Miss right now, and although the UM lawyers would be doing their jobs to get this dismissed, if they do so they will scream to the world of coaches that their word isn't worth a hoot-----AND IS ISN'T, but they don't need to let everyone know that.

The damage has already been done, but if y'all don't cave a little bit----your chances of finding a good coach anywhere in the near future are crappier than they are now.

Ain't life grand?

MAH-ROOM NOT CROOM! said...

12:11 and 1:59....You mentioned Mullen in your diatribe about hiring black coaches. Do you really not know that Mullen followed a black head football coach at MSU? And who sez 'Croom never had the full support of fans at MSU'? You can claim that all you like, but there's no way to back it up. I was a season ticket holder during the Croom years, I'm white, and every fan I knew supported him. But, you'll whine about a make believe issue because it's what y'all do.

Anonymous said...

I hope Nutt continues to go for the jugular. Those clowns did their best to lie, deflect and ruin his character by blaming their problems on him. I hope he cashes in big time. The defendant in Nutt's lawsuits has millions and millions of dollars.

Anonymous said...


6:20, you must be a Catholic.

Jim Craig said...

Two comments and a question, from a non-Ole Miss person:

1. Seems to me the NCAA investigates programs that start to recruit successfully. Does anyone really think they'd investigate Saban and Alabama?

2. Regardless of who is a better football coach, and whether this complaint states a cause of action, it's troubling that a state institution promoted false information. Either tell the truth, or say nothing. That alone is a terminable offense in my opinion.

3. (the question): How can one get a copy of the Ethics Commission opinion cited in footnote 8 on page 20? I can't find it on Westlaw or on the Commission's website.

Anonymous said...

When commenters identities here are made public via a lawsuit....it’s going to be interesting to see how people react to the racism that courses through these threads.

And the horrible grammar?

Watching illiterate rednecks disparage black people for being ignorant as a whole is almost as fun as watching Slim Pickens.

Anonymous said...

8:27, I thought the movie where Slim Pickens was riding the bomb was great.
Have you ever seen it? Take a look at it sometimes. You will get a laugh out of it.



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