The Ole Miss football program has been embroiled in scandal for some time, with the lion's share of the focus on the current administration under head coach Hugh Freeze. However on Wednesday, former Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt became a bigger player on the stage, as word broke that he is suing the "Ole Miss Athletic Foundation, The University of Mississippi, and The Board of Trustees for Institutions of Higher Learning."
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The suit alleges many things but the headliner is probably Nutt's assertion that the combination of Hugh Freeze, AD Ross Bjork and SID Kyle Campbell attempted to "carry out a carefully orchestrated misinformation campaign" against Nutt himself.
In addition, Pat Forde of Yahoo sheds light on part of the complaint from Nutt side that is damning toward the Freeze administration.
Coach Freeze had knowingly lied to the journalists and recruiting prospects by saying that the NCAA's investigation had little, if anything, to do with him or his coaching staff and was instead focused on alleged rules violations by Coach Nutt's staff," the complaint says. "Coach Freeze falsely stated that most, if not all, of the NCAA's allegations involved 'Houston Nutt' and his staff. At the time Coach Freeze made these statements, he was fully aware that they were patently false, yet he continued to make such statements, severely damaging Coach Nutt's reputation. ... The protection of Coach Freeze became the University's Number One priority in dealing with the NCAA investigation."
Nutt's only public response to the suit reads as follows:
"The lawsuit filed today speaks for itself. I'm going to let the federal court in Mississippi take it from here. I won't be making any comments about the lawsuit. Please direct any questions you have to my lawyers."
This will certainly be something to monitor moving forward and it is yet another bad look for the current Ole Miss power structure. Stay tuned.
