1 Tennessee Candidate Appears To Have Been Ruled Out
Late as they might be to the action, the Tennessee Volunteers are officially in the market for a new head coach. But while Vols fans will likely spend the next few days or weeks speculating, one name can probably be crossed off the list.
According to Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, Tennessee have essentially ruled out Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze off their list. Thamel pointed out that the Vols press conference made it clear that “integrity” is a vital theme of their next hire. He believes that is a direct reference to the “professional and personal baggage” that comes with hiring Freeze.
The controversies surrounding Hugh Freeze are fairly well-documented. He was ousted at Ole Miss in 2017 following a litany of scandals, including recruiting violations.
Given that the Vols just fired Jeremy Pruitt in part because of concerns over recruiting violations, Freeze could very well be persona non grata in Knoxville. Assuming that we can even take the Vols at their word, of course.
One thing that Tennessee's presser made clear without saying directly — they are not hiring Liberty's Hugh Freeze. You can't have a press conference centered around the theme of integrity and hire someone with Freeze's professional and personal baggage.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 18, 2021
Hugh Freeze has landed on his feet pretty nicely though. He’s led the moribund Liberty Flames to a 19-6 record with two bowl wins in two years at the helm.
The man who beat Nick Saban in back-to-back season will likely be linked to every major job in college football for years to come.
But it doesn’t look like he’s heading to Tennessee though.
Should the Vols really be ruling out Hugh Freeze in their head coaching search?
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