After 16 seasons at Middle Tennessee, during which he had only one losing season, Kermit Davis is back in a power conference.

However, the new Ole Miss coach hasn’t had the best past when it comes to NCAA compliance, as he was given a two-year show-cause penalty following his one tumultuous season as Texas A&M’s coach back in 1990-91.

Considering the position Ole Miss is in with the football team, which is under NCAA sanctions for the 2018 campaign, AD Ross Bjork was asked about the process that went into hiring Davis. According to Bjork, Davis’s compliance over the past 16 years gave the Rebels confidence (via the Clarion-Ledger):

“First of all, we had the report. We checked into it on our own and we talked to him about it,” Ross Bjork said. “The answers were consistent. The way we looked at it also was he was accountable for it. He took responsibility, and he has not had an issue since.

“You wrap those things into how long ago it was, three decades ago, what he’s done since. To me, he’s one of the safest hires you could have from a compliance standpoint because he knows what it’s like to be in that position and never wants to be in there again, just like us. We never want to be there again.”

Davis has given every indication that he runs a clean program now, and his record at Middle Tennessee speaks for itself.

However, his every move will be under the microscope at Ole Miss, so he’ll have little room for error at his new position.