Lawyer for Houston Nutt considering legal action, calls Ole Miss action ‘smear campaign’
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Former Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt has a bone to pick with the current administration in Oxford.
After it had been reported the NCAA was investigating Hugh Freeze’s program back in January of 2016, along with the Ole Miss women’s basketball and track and field programs, word started leaking that Nutt was ultimately to blame for the alleged violations against the football program. While that narrative has since been largely debunked and Freeze’s program has been presented with another Notice of Allegations, Nutt is seeking an apology for being thrown under the bus.
According to Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports, Nutt’s lawyer, Thomas Mars, argues that Ole Miss attempted to leak the former Ole Miss coach’s name to several publications. It makes sense that this could have been done in order to draw attention away from the current Ole Miss football staff for recruiting purposes after Yahoo! Sports reported the school had been served with a Notice of Allegations leading up to National Signing Day in 2016.
“This was a smear campaign. If it weren’t so deceitful and morally wrong, it would probably go down in college football history as one of the best trick plays ever.”
Several publications all ran with the Nutt allegations while Ole Miss went on to sign the No. 5 recruiting class in the nation weeks later.
If necessary, Nutt’s attorney is reportedly willing to take the case to court. He apparently feels good about his chances, too.
“I’m 100 percent certain the information was leaked by the university,” Mars said. “And I’m absolutely certain I could prove that in court.”
Meanwhile, Nutt claims he hasn’t been able to land another coaching job thanks to his name being attached to the current allegations at Ole Miss.
“My name wasn’t mentioned in the report but my name’s on the ticker [on television],” Nutt said. “My name is thrown out there a lot. It’s a frustrating thing.
“I’m 59 years old. It’s not like I’m going to get the next big job. But you miss ball so much. … It’s just bad when you get hit from all sides and blindsided by it.”
One thing that could hurt Nutt’s case, however, is the fact some violations did, in fact, take place at Ole Miss under his watch. His former assistants David Saunders and Chris Vaughn were tied to a serious academic fraud case at the school. Both were fired following their involvement in the violations.
While Nutt’s Rebel program is not entirely innocent, the woes Ole Miss is currently facing when it comes to the ongoing NCAA case against the school has little to do with him. Meanwhile, Freeze’s predecessor continues to wait for an apology from the school he helped lead to back-to-back Cotton Bowl wins and a 24-26 record over his four-year career in Oxford.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
