As the NCAA continues to look into any wrongdoing involving the Ole Miss football program from a couple of years ago, other schools didn’t hold back when ripping the Rebels on the recruiting trail.

Hugh Freeze addressed the negative recruiting on National Signing Day on Wednesday as the Rebels struggled to put together their 2017 class.

“It was ugly and I didn’t enjoy it,” Freeze said during his signing day press conference. “You take great pride in who you are and how you do things. That’s not to say that we’ve been perfect. But I know the value I place on this job and my name and our coaches’ names and our administration’s name, that I’m the leader of the program, so everything gets directed pretty much at me.

“Some of it is personal with some people probably. I don’t talk about other schools in recruiting. I will not do that and our staff has been charged to do the same. There are several others that they thought it was a prime opportunity to use it in recruiting and that’s the route they go.

“I won’t forget who they are.”

After putting together the nation’s No. 5 overall recruiting class last year (No. 3 in the SEC), Ole Miss has only managed to recruit the No. 33 overall class (No. 12 in the SEC) this offseason.

However, National Signing Day did provide a couple of big boosts to the class, most notably 4-star WR D.D. Bowie. Still, fans in Oxford won’t be happy with Freeze unless some of the less-heralded members of the 2017 group turn into productive players.

Freeze will seemingly use other schools’ negative recruiting to inspire his squad, but, for now, it appears the tactic worked for Ole Miss’s rivals, as the drop-off from last season has been sizable thus far.