Phil Longo enters his second season in control of Ole Miss’ explosive offense.

Although Longo was hired by Hugh Freeze, his boss is now Matt Luke, and Longo thinks there’s no better leader for the Rebels right now.

On Tuesday, Longo joined The Paul Finebaum Show and described why Luke is the perfect fit.

“You couldn’t have a better leader right now for this program,” Longo said of his head coach. “He has as deep of roots here in Oxford and in Ole Miss and in this football program and in this university that you could possibly have. And he comes to work every day with that passion. You see it. He wears it on his sleeve. It’s infectious. It rubs off on the coaches. It rubs off on the players. You want to coach hard for him. You want to play hard for him. I think everybody believes his message. He believes the culture that he’s building here. He’s going to give it everything he has every day, and I think the players and the coaches feel like they want to return the same.”

The Rebels are coming off of a 6-6 season, including beating Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl. Luke’s passion was evident throughout last season. The team never quit, and it never gave up. Yes, that’s a credit to the players, but it’s a major credit to Luke who was able to lead the charge. That’s exactly why he got the head coaching job.

“I can only speak for myself, but I think when you get up and you go to work and you know that the boss, when you get there, is going to be fired up, he’s going to be passionate, everything is well thought out, everything is organized, and everything means the absolute most to him when it has to do with our program, you’re inspired and motivated to work for a coach like that, for a person like that,” Longo said about Luke. “You know he’s giving it his ultimate effort to lead this program and you believe in the direction he’s taking it.

“And so when you have that type of leadership at the top, coaches go into their positional rooms with the same passion and the same motivation and the passion and that’s how it winds up affecting and trickling down to our players. I would say it’s a credit to our players. It’s a very high character locker room, and these guys go to work every day. They’ve been through a lot and I think they’re right now just very very excited about continuing to prepare for Texas Tech.”