What Hugh Freeze thinks about facing Mississippi State this week
By Kevin Duffey
Published:
Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze met with the media Monday to discuss Saturday’s game against Mississippi State.
Freeze and the Rebels were beaten last season in Starkville, and they want that Egg Bowl trophy back.
Freeze talked in detail about his team and the rivalry Monday:
Opening statement…
“They’ve gotten much better and improved every single week. I told our staff yesterday and shared with our kids that the only thing that I’ve ever known that can take the steam out of disappointment is thankfulness. I’ve found that if I can give thanks in everything regardless of my feelings, I usually can find some joy regardless of my circumstances. That’s something I’ve challenged our staff and our kids to do. The first thing we talked about was being thankful for the opportunity to represent this great university in the Egg Bowl and the importance of it to our fans, our football program and this entire university. They have a clear understanding of how much this game means to so many. I expect us to have a great week of preparation in getting ready to play this in the Vaught come Saturday.”
On impressions of Mississippi State…
“They’re a very good football team. Dak Prescott makes them better than very good. You take him away from that team and they’re still really good. Defensively, they’re one of the best in the nation in the rush. They just don’t give up much on the ground at all. Offensively, they have a sound running back. He’s hard to bring to the ground. Their receivers have improved. Coach (Dan) Mullen and his staff, in their six years, have built a good team there. They have quality depth everywhere. It shows. They’re a very solid football team. They’re ranked that high, and they’re deserving of it. It speaks to the depth in the SEC West, also. They’ve done a nice job building really good depth and developing the kids they have there to improve.”
On Dak Prescott…
“Everyone, even outside of their family, would say that he’s a great leader. It’s easy to see that the players that play with him believe in him and want to follow him. Then you put his performance with those leadership qualities and it makes him a pretty special player.”
On Bo Wallace…
“He obviously hurt his ankle the other night. It is an ankle sprain. It would take a lot more than that to keep him out of this game. He’s hungry and wants to play in this game in a bad way. He’s going to try to go no matter what. He’s gotten better each day. Hopefully he’ll be close to 100 percent.”
On importance of this game…
“When you play two good teams, the one with the fewest mistakes usually wins. You can’t look at last year’s film and say that the passion wasn’t there. The effort was there last Saturday, too. Our defense played their guts out. They had their backs against the wall the entire game and fought. No way in the world was it a lack of understanding in the game last year.”
On the importance of the Egg Bowl in recruiting…
“I’m going to give the same answer. Yes it’s important, but I do believe it’s been proven the relationships you build with most kids over the course of the years you recruit them typically win out in the end, regardless of who wins that game. Until something happens I see otherwise, though this could be a different year with rankings and where they end up and all that but until this point my experience says yes it’s important but after a couple weeks and it’s over and it’s decision time a lot of kids know where they’re leaning and it’s because of other factors, other than just who won the game. That’s my opinion.”
On the disappointment of no longer being in SEC West race…
“There’s disappointment any time you lose a game. You don’t like the fact that everything has happened right at the end of the season that’s disappointment when a month and a half ago we were on cloud nine and had some disappointments and you have to learn how to handle those. All this right at the end we have to evaluate why it’s happened. Is it depth or is it we’ve had to expend some much energy to compete in this league. Defensively we have decent depth and I think it shows we’re still pretty good on that side. We have to evaluate all those things as to why that is. You know what, there are 128 Division I schools and I’m sure there are quite a few that are disappointed they’re not in the conference championships any longer. If that’s the reason you play on a given Saturday you’ll probably be disappointed a lot more than three times. There’s disappointment, but I don’t think anyone would have thought we would be competing for the SEC Championship to begin with, so I’m kind of looking at the big picture. The big picture is I still think we’re ahead of schedule. We’re disappointed but ahead of schedule. We have a lot to play for with pride on the line and eight or nine wins in the regular season.”
On elevating in the bowl order…
“We won’t channel that at all this weekend. It’s all about the Egg Bowl. It is a good point though because there is a lot to play for. There’s motivation and something we’d enjoy doing in elevating ourselves in the bowl picture, but I doubt we use that as motivation this weekend as much as the pride of winning the Egg Bowl.”
On injury concerns…
“I got a lot of concerns but all of the kids that made the trip will give it a go in this game. That’s probably the best way I can put it. There won’t be a single kid that’s out of the game the other night that won’t give it a great go.”
On pressure to get the Egg back in Oxford…
“If I let people define pressure on me I’d have a lot. There are times where it does, you’ll have those five or 10 minute periods where you feel it because you care. If you didn’t care you could probably blow it off pretty easily. I care so much about the job we’re doing here and this place and the people I could at times give in to that, but I try to reign my thoughts back in pretty quickly. I focus on task at hand, whatever that is, whether it’s recruiting and making sure we’re getting our program to where year in and year out I don’t have to feel that pressure or hear that disappointment. It’s not enjoyable. I don’t give in too much to pressure. I have too much to be thankful for to let that get to me. There are times you’re more susceptible to it than others.”
On this rivalry being more hate-filled than others…
“I haven’t been a part of others that are close to this one so I’m probably not a good resource to judge it according to what other rivalries are like. I know this one is pretty intense and sometimes in my opinion it crosses the line to what is good and all of that. I want to beat them as bad as they want to beat us, particularly two days out of the year — this Saturday and then National Signing Day. Those are the two days I feel that way. I feel that way all the time, but I don’t let it control my emotions. I wish it wasn’t that way. It’s probably not as much as you think but the ones who feel that way feel the ease to talk about it publicly and put it out on social media sites. I can’t compare it to others. I find it hard to believe there are many with more intensity than this one.”
On redemption from how last year’s Egg Bowl ended…
“We haven’t talked in specifics about the exact way it ended. I’m sure for individuals that have a clear memory of exactly what happened on the last series there or play or whatever things happened I’m sure it’s a motivator for them. We haven’t talked specifically about the way it ended as a team. Maybe we will before the week is up. The bottom line is we lost the most prized possession of this university’s football program, regardless of how it ended. That’s the facts of it, and it should be enough motivation.”
On Bo Wallace’s legacy…
“You hope people focus on all the good. He’s led us to three consecutive bowl games. He’s been very, very relevant in returning relevancy to this program in the conference and nationally. He’s now become the all-time total offense owner of that record, passing the great Eli Manning. Those are some great things. I think in time people will recognize that and he’ll be remembered for those things. Hopefully he can add another two to it, win another bowl to it and get the Egg home.”
A graduate of the University of Florida and founder of Saturday Down South, Kevin is a college football enthusiast.
