Ole Miss and head coach Hugh Freeze remain in contract negotiations, though the University is increasingly optimistic that Freeze will remain in Oxford, reports Hugh Kellenberger of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger.

The two sides are making progress on an extension to keep Freeze — who’s in the third year of a four-year deal — at the school.

Memphis radio station WHBQ reported late Monday morning that Freeze had agreed to an extension that would raise his salary to $4 million per year and give him an additional $500,000 for assistant coaches.

Kellenberger, citing a source with knowledge of the negotiations, reports there is no signed agreement.

Freeze was said to have been mulling offers from both Florida and Ole Miss on Sunday, according to report by SBNation late Sunday evening. The report detailed that the Gators had offered Freeze somewhere in the neighborhood of $4.2 and $4.3 million per year.

Florida’s interest in Freeze is not in doubt, and while Kellenberger says there may, in fact, be mutual interest, Florida’s search did not stop with the third-year Ole Miss head coach. Sports Illustrated’s Pete Thamel reported over the weekend that Freeze was on Gators’ athletic director Jeremy Foley’s short list.

Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork told reporters earlier this month that Ole Miss could get within $4 million per year on a new four-year deal for Freeze, the maximum under Mississippi state law.

Bjork also said last month he had begun contract talks with Freeze’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, and that he was confident is Ole Miss’ ability to compete financially in order to retain Freeze.