HOOVER, Ala. — It's a 10-minute stroll from the campus of Ole Miss, down the circular drive on Ole Taylor Road to Rowan Oak, where famed author William Faulkner dreamed up stories of the Southern conscious.
Even he couldn't have dreamed up one like this.
At just about any college football program outside the SEC, Hugh Freeze would've been fired by now. But there he was Thursday, less than 24 hours after being named in a defamation and breach of contract lawsuit—on top of being a central figure in an NCAA investigation of the Ole Miss program that alleges 21 rules violations—standing at the podium at SEC media days and talking about character and integrity in dealing with adversity.