ESPN's Mike & Mike blast Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze on air
Don’t expect to see Hugh Freeze having dinner with ESPN Radio hosts Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic any time soon.
The veteran radio duo blasted the Ole Miss coach on Tuesday morning during a discussion about the validity of the new NCAA rule about banning satellite camps.
Their major gripe about the new rule, among many others, is the way it takes away the ability for coaches from the Group of 5 and beyond to be in attendance at Power 5 camps, which was the way a lot of players got noticed for scholarships under the previous rules.
“Hugh Freeze’s comment is enough to make you want to smash your head into a wall,” host Mike Greenberg said on Tuesday morning. “One of the reasons he’s happen that satellite camps are banned is as quote: ‘I’m selfish with my time. I’m away from my family enough that I just did not want to go. We would’ve jumped in with the rest of them and gone to work, but I’m glad we can have a camp and sleep at home.'”
Greenberg continued: “Well thank God for that, Hugh. Thank God you and your millions of dollars can sleep in the huge house that you live in while these kids who cannot afford to get to all of these different places– cannot afford to go to Athens, Georgia to get to your camp– could previously have gone to one spot near where they lived and had the opportunity to work out in front of a whole lot of coaches. But thankfully you can sleep in your bed while those kids may not get a change to get a college scholarship. I’m so relieved by that. I am so glad the NCAA took that into account when making these decisions.”
Greenberg then went on to challenge NCAA president Mark Emmert to call the show and tell him how the new rule benefits a single student-athlete.
First of all, Ole Miss is in Oxford, Miss. Not Athens, Ga. Get that straight, Mike.
Second, Freeze is aware of the unintended consequences of the new rule, and he may not hold the exact position that Greenberg paints him to hold.
According to a report from Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples, Freeze said he’d like to continue hosting camps that allowed coaches from other schools to attend, just not guys like Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh.
“I would love to continue that,” Freeze said Monday. “I just don’t want satellite camps for the Power Five. I am for non-Power Five schools being able to attend and evaluate.”
Freeze agrees with the intention of the rule—just not the unintended consequences. He does not think his coaches should be able to work a camp in Houston, smack in the middle of Texas A&M’s recruiting territory. He does, however, think South Alabama coaches should be allowed to work the Ole Miss camp.
While that’s just a snippet of Mike and Mike’s complaints about satellite camps, and there may be some validity to those complaints, it seems unfair to make such harsh public judgement against Freeze without presenting his complete position (or knowing the location of his school).
Oh my! You mean someone in the media jumped to conclusions and stirred the pot? Say it ain’t so!
I may be wrong, but from what I understand, the satellite camps were basically a thinly disguised recruiting trip during a dead period. A rule had to be made one way or the other and I don’t see how this hurts any athlete. There’s still tons of chances for a serious player to be seen by coaches.
Maybe Mike and Mike haven’t heard of that thing AL Gore invented. No, not Global Warming, the Internet. There is no such thing as a kid that doesn’t get seen anymore.
Then take some of your millions of dollars and provide assistance to the financially strapped athletes. I can’t believe athletes were able to attain scholarships prior to satellite camps…..Typical Big 10 supporter.
2 things:
1) I think satellite camps are a disguise for coaches to NOT have to travel across the United States meeting with and or finding the elite ones. They want to earn these astronomical checks and bonuses and not work for them. What better way then to have all the athletes in one area.. Save time on their behalf.. Lazy Lazy Lazy. Show the kid you’re interested in them by going to THEM! NOT have them accomodate you..
2) Nick Cole, you should proof read your material before you publish it. Too many grammatical errors. Maybe that’s why you and others are reporting such stories during the off-season when hardly no one really cares to read about stuff like, “OL from Blah Blah Blah arrested for opening a package of cookies and eating them while on line waiting to pay for them.
Oh boo hoo….it’s not Hugh Freeze’s job to make sure that every kid can make it to a satellite. His job is to do what is best for his program. These camps are nothing but a way to recruit without running afoul of the rules. Cry me a river.
I didn’t know Mike and Mike were still on the air.
They shouldn’t be. Geez talk about the UT thugs Ole Miss Cheaters How AU will under perform again this year.This story is a totally no issue.
Talk about someone’s butt still burning after his po lil pachyderms got beat by the Ole Miss Rebels with mostly 3 and 4 star players. Yeah buddy, the Rebels cheated by out coaching Saban. Hey, try some metholated salve on that redass.
You might want to pick some of that up yourself before you come to Fayetteville this year.
po lil pachyderms, I salute you for that one all jokes aside.
No one is afraid of Arkansas
yawn thought they would talk about how they are now the biggest cheaters in the nation . Geez who cares about this.
lol…..Alabama still holds the record at 180k for Albert Means….keep your own skeletons in the closet.
Dude these guys need to CHILL OUT
Mike and Mike are ignorant on the issue and that is a GROSS UNDERSTATEMENT.
The difference between Hugh Freeze and the Mikes: Freeze = knows what he’s talking about…, while the Mikes are ignorant blowhards. Let’s see, every coaching staff in american can see the candidates high school film but we still need to have these kids pay to travel to heaven knows how many camps before they get selected. Yes college coaches already have more work to do than they can get done looking at film and talking to references.
Mike & Mike need to find someone else to bash for not wanting to work hard or do everything he can to help others. The high character displayed daily by Coach Freeze is way out of their league!!!!
College coaches, by and large, are some of the hardest-working people around. M&M, irrelevant blowhards and millionaires themselves, have no business criticizing the work ethic of other similar millionaires who work exponentially harder than they do.
And the fact is that virtually no pirate satellite camp will scoop up a blue-chipper. These top 300 preps will always go to schools that have recruited them long and hard, not due to some instantaneous infatuation out of a 4-day camp. The net gain is not worth the effort, and the effort is tremendous when added to an already murderous commitment of time to the job by a college coach. And let’s be clear here – we’re really talking about the time of the assistant coaches, who are not millionaires.