Chad Kelly, meet Hugh Freeze’s black book.

The former Clemson quarterback and East Mississippi Community College star, who arrived in Oxford on Tuesday, agreed to a plea bargain during his court hearing on Monday for multiple misdemeanor charges stemming from a Dec. 21 nightclub altercation.

If you don’t believe Kelly is square on Freeze’s radar, you’re naive. Then again, perhaps I’m naive. The third-year Ole Miss head coach all along has been patient when speaking about Kelly’s status with team, telling reporters he’d wait for the Monday court appearance when all the facts became available.

“It’s like I tell him everyday when he’s calling and texting me: I will deal with you when I get ready to deal with you and that will be after I gather everything,” Freeze told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger the day after Christmas. “… After the Jan. 5 court date and what happens with that. When you’re dealing with a kid’s future, I know everybody has their opinion and none of the opinions really matter except for what is best for the program first, the kid second.

The Clarion-Ledger reports Freeze will speak with Kelly and his family on Tuesday in attempt to determine the talented quarterback’s fate with the Rebels, but there’s no question, Freeze is in a precarious position.

Now there’s one dark, unanswered question surrounding the Ole Miss program, and it’s one that Saturday Down South’s Ethan Levine pointedly wrote could determine Freeze’s credibility as a recruiter.

What should he do with an immensely talented, but deeply troubled, quarterback?

What makes the question so important is not this particular incident, troubling as it is, but it’s Kelly’s track record of mishaps. And there’s no easy answer; we’ve seen sports personalities with far greater issues continue their careers. But at each stop he’s been at, Freeze has cleaned up the program and he’s now made Ole Miss a viable SEC player the right way, maintaining his pristine character along the way.

It’s not to say this circumstance will define Freeze as a person or as a coach, but the process of Kelly’s recruitment is unnerving. As Levine reports, the Rebels came on to Kelly late and seemingly ignored several glaring warning signs. Yes, there are severe questions at quarterback entering 2015, but is the pressure to win increasing in Oxford at such a rate that Freeze felt compelled to sign a potential cancer to the program?

It seems Kelly’s court result helps his positioning with Freeze. To be given a plea deal far less than what the initial charges suggested he’d receive is important and Freeze will likely embrace that Kelly’s mandate of 50 hours of community service can be completed on campus.

While Freeze has yet to determine Kelly’s fate, he can’t dismiss the JUCO transfer. Dismissing him after one transgression less than a week after he signed with the Rebels would be the greatest disaster of Freeze’s coaching career.

Yes, Kelly has a track record, but Freeze decided to — not just take on chance on him — but sign him in good faith after an in-home visit with Kelly and his family in which Freeze told reporters he was convinced the former Clemson quarterback had changed.

Freeze is no stranger to welcoming troubled quarterbacks with which he butted heads into the program. (See Wallace, Bo.) Wallace left Arkansas State when Freeze was the head coach in Jonesboro, transferred to EMCC and wound up at Ole Miss reunited with his former head coach. He left as, statistically, the best quarterback in school history.

A decision is expected by the end of the week, and whatever the outcome, it will likely be well-vetted and thorough.

But Freeze needs to do what he knows in his heart of hearts is right. And that’s keep Kelly.