Ole Miss Football: Why The Nutt Lawsuit Won’t Be Cataclysmic
By John Gillon
Former Ole Miss football head coach, Houston Dale Nutt, filed a defamation lawsuit against the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation. Nutt was fired after the 2011 season and replaced by Hugh Freeze.
The filing of the lawsuit has many claiming this will be the end of Hugh Freeze, which is laughable at best. Seriously, if there was ever a time for a Donald J. Trump fake news gif, it is now. Hugh Freeze may be fired one day, but it will not be because of this lawsuit. The link to the lawsuit can be found below.
Houston Dale Nutt, Jr vs Ole Miss Athletics Foundation
Houston filed the lawsuit against the entire athletic foundation; however, his main target is undoubtedly Hugh Freeze. The lawsuit sites a breach of contract from the firing of Houston Nutt by Ole Miss.
Nutt claims Coach Freeze conspired with journalists to provide false information to the public. This false information was allegedly meant to place the majority of the blame for NCAA violations on Nutt and his staff, not coach freeze.
The biggest issue here is that Coach Freeze has never publicly stated the majority of the violations were related to Houston Nutt. Journalists reported most of the football violations were related to Nutt’s staff, yes. However, the journalists cite off the record and unnamed sources. The lawsuit alleges this was Coach Freeze or someone else higher up in the athletic department.
Nutt’s lawsuit also alleges that Coach Freeze held private, off the record phone calls with journalists to feed them the false and defamatory information. Houston claims Ole Miss making false statements about him is the reason he can’t get a head coaching job.