This wasn’t the year Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze had envisioned in the offseason.

Ranked No. 11 in the season opener versus Florida State, the Rebels now sit unranked at 3-5. Ole Miss is in real danger of not even making a bowl game.

Vaught-Hemingway Stadium underwent some cosmetic changes during the offseason — which included an expansion of the student section. The thought behind the change was to compensate for an expected influx of students attending games.

However, this premise hasn’t quite gone to plan. Huge hordes of students have left games at halftime. This development has occurred on multiple occasions — in the case of both blow-outs and competitive games.

Freeze spoke to 247Sports about the noticeable lack of support, and it’s something he hopes will change in the future:

“Does it bother me that some seats are empty in an SEC West Division game in a one-point halftime game when you come out? It does. I would hope that they would stay for that, and many do. I wish the ones that choose to leave would certainly reconsider it. We need their support. We need that place to be difficult, and they’re probably the ones that can make it the most difficult.”

As a means to combat this problem, Ole Miss is hosting a practice made open to the student body:

Freeze elaborates on this ploy further:

“Well, I love our student body, and we’re having an open practice for them to come to. Many, many, many of our students are loyal, great supporters and help us, making our home atmosphere a difficult one to play in. We’ve got a great student body that I care for. If there is something we can do to make that happen, I’ll be glad to consider it. One of the things is Tuesday and getting to see those people here and encouraging them let’s do this together. We’ve got two remaining home games. Let’s make it difficult.”