After a tough and pretty darn crazy overtime loss in Week 10 to Arkansas, Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze addressed the media on Monday. It’s a little strange that Freeze still held a press conference on the Rebels’ open week, but who doesn’t like hearing from him?

The transcript from Freeze’s presser is below.

Opening statement…
“Well, I never experienced anything quite like what we experienced on Saturday. After watching the film and the effort that was given by both teams and ours, we couldn’t find issues with effort. It was certainly one of those days where the offenses had their way on both sides. It was a very difficult ending. You think you have won it a couple of times. Obviously, a game is never just decided on those plays, but they are a part of it. It’s a difficult loss, but there were a lot of positives. It was possibly one of the most efficient offensive games since I’ve been here. I thought Chad (Kelly) played extremely well, as did the offensive line and receivers. There were a lot of positives in the game. I thought we controlled the run game against a very good running team. Obviously, that was the plan, to stop the run. We unfortunately didn’t have answers to their pass game. That is something that we will have to address. I’m looking forward to an open week to get some people healed up, healthier and digging in on our stuff so we are evaluating what we are asking our kids to do. Hopefully we are making it simple for them to execute at the highest level. I think as a coach, that’s what you always have to do, is make sure you are asking your kids to do the most that they are capable of doing, and giving them the best tools to do that. This gives us an opportunity this week to dig in on a lot of individual practice, where you are not having to game plan the entire practice. I think that is needed right now for all of us, as coaches and players. I’m excited about this week and anxious to get back on the field. Sometimes, that’s how you get these feelings out of your gut. We’ll build on the positives and make corrections to the issues that we had.”

On the issues with the defense…
“A combination is always the answer. Sometimes, they had the perfect call, just like we did offensively. Sometimes, you lose one-on-ones, which we did a good bit. Was it a good call for our defensive staff to put our players in those situations? That’s what we have to evaluate. I’m certain that there are calls, sometimes, that we would love to have back. SO it was a combination of things. They present an issue to you, when you watch the tape. Whether it’s real or not, this year they are a little different. In your mind, you really look at it, and there are a lot of gaps that they created in the run game. They have really quality offensive linemen, tight ends and running backs. You certainly want to stop the run, which I thought we did well. The negative to that, when you have to put people in the gaps that they create, their tight ends and wide receivers are going to be in a lot of one-on-one situations. They won a large percentage of those. Schematically, we probably should have done some things differently. Obviously, in individual one-on-ones, we need to find a way to win more.”

On Mike Hilton playing cornerback…
“We were trying to get Tony (Connor) back, and with our best eleven out there, we rotate those corners to keep them fresh. That was part of it. Mike is such a solid tackler and football player for us. When they bring in certain personnel, you want your best football players out there. You’ve got to figure Mike Hilton is one of those, as is Tony Connor.”

On learning from Alabama’s defensive scheme to stop LSU…
“There is always something to learn from other games. Obviously, players are different in every scenario, and players are different in different schemes. Alabama is built to stop runs inside the tackles. That is what they do. It didn’t surprise me that they were going to stop that kind of run game. There are certain things that we can study and learn from them. We will. We will look at all that and try to fit it to our game plan. As far as the game, the lateral and the bounce over C.J. (Johnson’s) head, to a linemen that tips it right into their fastest guy’s hands. That is one of those things that the longer you’re in the game as a coach, some of those bounces go our way. We have had a few of those bounces go our way. We stopped them on the two-point conversion, but had a flag on the ground. It was totally unintentional by our kid to touch the facemask. It was a difficult ending for sure.”

On Tony Conner’s knee…
“It did swell after the game. I just talked to Pat (Jernigan), and he will be in this afternoon to drain Tony’s knee. That was the plan all along. They will drain it and see how he feels tomorrow. We will judge what we do with him based on that.”

On the offensive effort from both teams on Saturday…
“I was not surprised by the effort. I think in this league, most of the time, effort is there. You’re somewhat surprised sometimes. Both defenses have been pretty good in certain areas the last few weeks. So it is a bit surprising that both offenses had their way. We worked extremely hard on our plan. We had to have a really good plan based off of last year. There was some extra motivation for that. I thought Chad Kelly really executed at a high level, as did the rest of our guys. Arkansas’ quarterback did the same thing. I’m not surprised at the effort, but I am surprised that both offenses had their way against defenses that have played really well the last few weeks.”

On Tony Conner’s playing time and recovery…
“Like I said earlier, we’ve always known that there is an issue he is going to have to get corrected after the season is over. It is still there. Tony got 30 snaps, I believe. We just have to monitor it. The same plan is still there. There is going to have to be a surgery after the season to completely fix it.”

On other games’ worst-case scenario outcomes factoring into going for it on fourth down near midfield…
“They factored into the Auburn game for sure. It is funny that a lot of people want to take issues with those things. We are 20 yards from kicking a game-winning field goal with the wind. We were feeling pretty good that we could get the six yards to midfield. They had a field goal that they were going to have to kick into the wind. Arkansas had not had a field goal all year longer than 29 or 30 yards, I don’t believe. Obviously you can be criticized either way. For us, with the game going how it was and not knowing who would win the toss in overtime, we had a chance to possibly end the game there. It was the same thing in the first half with one pass and still having a timeout. I knew based on what Arkansas has done this year, and their field goal unit kicking into the wind, they would have to have a pretty good play to get that accomplished. I felt like at that point, the best thing for us to have done was to try and win the game.”

On Christian Morris’ career-ending injury…
“I actually have not talked to Christian, other than text. The doctors came to campus from Jackson this weekend and had a conversation with him while we were in pregame, so I really have not had a chance to sit down and talk to him yet. He will be a medical scholarship guy and he will complete his degree. Life will go on. It is disappointing for him, and I’m sure it is hurtful. We hate it for him. It’s just like coaching in these games, you get gut punches in life. How you handle those will kind of determine what kind of life you have. We will support him and love him. He is a mature young man. We had already had a conversation last week knowing that this could be a possibility. While he was hurt about it, he had a good perspective. We will make Christian a student-assistant and he can help encourage other kids that have the opportunity to continue playing.”

On the rule book interpretations of the backwards lateral pass…
“The interpretation is based on whether or not it was a lateral or a fumble. In their interpretation, and I would agree, it was a lateral. It was a backwards pass. That is the differentiating thing. The one that I had a question about was the fumble at the end of the play because I know the rule on that one is very clear. The thing that worked out for them is that he was beyond the line to gain. Another bad break that we had is that if we are not trying to pull Hunter Henry’s arms down he is not trying to lateral it. We could’ve had a better chance of getting it had we not had a hold of his arms. I couldn’t tell exactly where that fumble occurred, but it was beyond the line of gain.”

On the team’s success…
“I wouldn’t say this is an exceptional year. I would say that we are relevant again. Anytime that you’ve done what we’ve done in short amount of time here, the expectations grow. It is impossible to manage those. Most of our people are appreciative that we are competitive and disappointed, like me, when we don’t get the job done. We know that is our responsibility and we have to be held accountable. We get all of that. Most of our people are thrilled that we are relevant. We are battling for the SEC West. There are others of those that have expectations that when they are not, it is tough to handle it. But that is life. Like I said, we are competitive and relevant in the Southeastern Conference which is what the Ole Miss people deserve. That does not guarantee you that you are going to win games in this conference. There is no easy out. Sometimes the ball bounces your way, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes you have a great plan and sometimes you don’t. We will evaluate everything at the end of the year to make sure we are giving our kids the best opportunity and continue to recruit at a high level. We will continue to be relevant. What that means from game to game is very, very difficult.”

On recruiting priorities…
“We always have needs and some are greater than others at different positions. Again, it is a combination. We have to evaluate our schemes too. If you are asking kids to consistently do something that they are not being successful in, we need to find another avenue to go down. It is a combination. We have said for several years that we need to address certain things in recruiting. We need to get longer at certain positions. We are excited about the recruiting class that is coming in, for sure. From there we will address those needs. It is a combination of not just addressing the needs, but we might need to mix in some things that give them more of an advantage.”

On the events occurring in Missouri…
“I really haven’t thought about a situation like that for a coach. I don’t know all of the details. I know that anytime you have to choose a side like that, it is not great for either side. I don’t know enough about it to really say. I haven’t really thought about that. This day and time, there are obviously a lot of things that could arise that you haven’t thought about that you have to deal with. My heart goes out to him and his program in their situation that they are dealing with.”