OLE MISS
Report: Shea Patterson blasts former coach Hugh Freeze in letter to NCAA
When the NCAA extended Ole Miss’s postseason ban through 2018, former star QB Shea Patterson decided to transfer.
He ended up at Michigan, but at the moment, his status for this season is up in the air. That all depends on whether the NCAA grants him a waiver to play immediately or whether it makes him wait until 2019.
On Wednesday, CBS Sports reported that Patterson wrote a letter pleading his case to the NCAA. Though CBS Sports wouldn’t report on the full scope of the document, it did say that Patterson detailed the lies he was told by then-coach Hugh Freeze:
Patterson spends most of the document describing, in detail, how he was allegedly misled by Freeze and, at times, athletic director Ross Bjork.
He’s not being punished. He wants a waiver from the rules. Hugh freeze downplaying the NCAA case isn’t any different than a coach downplaying a jump to the NFL. Plus at the time no one could predict the future and I honestly think Ole Miss thought whatever penalties they were going to receive were not going to be as severe as it ended up being. Hind sight is 20/20. Plus his brother was on the staff, pretty sure his bro would have been the first to advocate for getting him out but he didn’t.
Who knows what they told his brother. He wasn’t necessarily privy to all the info.
His brother is still on staff, which means he still works for Bjork.
And why would he still be there if he thought they screwed over his little brother? The NCAA should make him write a statement. That would be interesting.
He doesn’t deserve a waiver, he signed with them knowing g they were under investigation.
Unless he was lied to about the truthfulness of the allegations. As far as recruiting goes, coaches, being in positions of power (actual legal terminology), have an ethical obligation to not lie to student athletes. Lying includes omitting information. This means, plain and simple, if the kid was lied to, he can use it as a defense. Maybe they didn’t tell Patterson everything. Maybe they downplayed things to get Patterson to sign. Who knows? Fact is, the best source of information will come from Patterson.
From the link the article: “In the filing, Patterson states Ole Miss officials “plotted” to keep him and other Rebels recruits in 2016 from finding out about the true scope of the NCAA charges.”
Boom. Simple as that. This ain’t hard to understand why he deserves a waiver.
That’s where you’re wrong. The scope of the investigation changed AFTER the 2016 class signed. The coaching staff was going off of information presented in the initial Notice of Allegations. The bowl ban was only put in place AFTER the second NOA was handed down that summer. There’s an argument to be made that Freeze never lied because nobody knew about the second letter until Leo Lewis was interviewed by the NCAA.
You big dummy. Is yor name Lamont?
Again you are taking Shea Patterson at his word. As if he is objective in this scenario with no skin in the game. Of course he saying the staff “plotted” because he wants to play immediately then jump to the NFL. He stated he would be one and done at Michigan. To act as if Shea is innocent and playing victim is just not true. You don’t even know what he means by “plotting”. He has two years left even if does not get a waiver. Its not like he has one year left. Again hind sight is 20/20. Crying wolf after the fact doesn’t make you right.
If you don’t take Patterson at his word then whose word do you take? The coach that lied?
All I’m saying is that Shea’s reasoning for wanting a waiver should not be held as gospel compared to everyone else. And what coaches lied to him, what lies were told? Texts saying to get news articles in the hands of recruits defending Ole Miss is hardly “plotting” or misleading.
Well Freeze told the whole world he ran a clean program and the NCAA could look if they wanted too….. So you tell me who lied.
Most of which rested on a suspect testimony from a player at a rival school. Again you cannot answer what “lies” were told to the recruits. What constitutes “plotting”. And how a 20 or 21 year old is now the moral arbiter and his reasoning for wanting a waiver is above questioning. Just because you don’t like it carries zero weight.
Do you know he Shea if not being truthful? I mean you’re writing off everything he said….
Siding with you, Bamatime. The answer to the question of who do we believe is simple. One person is a proven lying sack of you know what and the other guy is just trying to get out from under the shadow of Ole Miss. Who else SHOULD we believe? “Sources”? The best source of information comes from the front lines and that person is either Patterson or Freeze. Let me reiterate: Freeze is a proven liar and multiple people have come forward saying Freeze lied. It should be noted that NO ONE has come forward to say these people are lying about it either.
You literally just said in another post, “No one can see around every corner. You weren’t in the room when Ole Miss met with Patterson, nor were you around during any other conversations.” But you will go ahead assume in this instance Shea is right and everyone else is wrong. You can’t have it both ways. My point as its been the entire time is that because no one knows and that at the time of his recruitment no one knew how severe things would get you cant start changing your decisions you made at the time. That simple.
Well you see Shea, it’s important to not be a gullible idiot. Gullible idiots deserve what they get, however. It was REALLY REALLY obvious that Freeze and Ole Miss were shady. I’m sure other coaches and various people desperately tried to tell you this, and you wouldn’t listen. Enjoy riding the pine.
You’re not fool proof and I’m willing to bet you wouldn’t think you deserve to be had simply because you were fooled. No one can see around every corner. You weren’t in the room when Ole Miss met with Patterson, nor were you around during any other conversations. Were you? It’s not as black or white as you say it is. Saying he DESERVED it? Really, dude? Is this how you’re processing all this?
LOL. It’s absolutely as black and white as I’m presenting it, provided one isn’t an Ole Miss fan. That’s what made this the most entertaining NCAA scandal of all time. The Ole Miss faithful like yourself accepted all the absolute nonsense your AD and HC were spouting.
To people who weren’t part of that echo chamber, and Shea Patterson and his family were not, it was indeed incredibly obvious that what did in fact end up happening to Ole Miss was going to happen.
The simple fact that everyone seems to be avoiding is that no one here knows what was said. Anyone that says that they know that he was lied to is full of it, as is anyone who says that they know he wasn’t lied to. All we have is one sided claims.
However, consider the following: After the NCAA ruling, Patterson very publicly swore his allegiance to Ole Miss. He made no claims concerning lies at that point. He didn’t make such claims until after he decided to transfer and he didn’t decide to transfer until after Tamu’s performance made it clear that he would have to compete to win back his starting spot. All of the other players transferring and making claims are players who were not used much. A.J. Brown, D.K. Metcalf, Greg Little and scores of other recruits, some of whom were high profile, from the era when Ole Miss was waiting on a ruling have stayed and some have made it very clear publicly that they do not feel that they were lied to. Sean Patterson worked for Ole Miss while his brother was being recruited so either staff were lied to as well or Sean was part of the deceit. Sean has stayed at Ole Miss so it does not seem like he thinks that he or his family were ill treated by them. These are all fact. Draw your own conclusions.
So basically the soul of your argument is “the entire team didn’t transfer out which is proof they weren’t lied to”.
So since they weren’t lied too, I suppose the actual truth of matter is that the NCAA was only looking at Houston Nutt and Title IX sports? That’s what Lyin’ Ross said publicly at the time, and since nobody lied, it has to be true, right?
Others on the team have said they weren’t lied to. Patterson’s brother is still on the staff. Would he be if he thought the school screwed his brother? This isn’t black and white. We don’t have enough info. I still think he gets the waiver though.
I think that he will get the waiver, but it won’t in reality have anything to do with whether or not anyone lied. The NCAA has been under pressure to make it easier for players to transfer. He will get the waiver because the NCAA doesn’t want to catch the negative publicity they will get if he doesn’t. I don’t have any problem with that.
I didn’t make an argument. I just stated facts.
I didn’t say that they weren’t lied to. In fact, I made it clear that I do not know whether they were or not and neither do you. By the way, whether you think that Bjork is “Lyin Ross” or not, your characterization of what he said publicly is inaccurate.
Just a few thoughts…
I’ve heard many declare the worst of the Ole Miss violations were discovered AFTER the first NOI. While that’s true, a huge number of the incidents occurred before and during this time. Sadly, many more occurred afterward. That’s why the NCAA administered its penalty and described it as a pattern of behavior.
Did the Ole Miss administration mislead or lie to Patterson? I wasn’t in the room, so I can’t say with certainty. HOWEVER, there is no debate Ole Miss officials operated with self serving interests opposite NCAA guidelines. In light of the maelstrom of negativity surrounding the program, it makes no sense to continue this dialogue.
Patterson is gone. He’s not coming back. He’s just a football player…and college kid. Wish him well, and let him go.
^This should be the only post on this article.
I don’t want to make it even harder on the athletes who didn’t break any rules but anytime a program gets sanctioned it should be no holds barred on athlete who want to transfer and play immediately, UNLESS they were knowingly part of the violations. This is a situation where it SHOULD take a program several years to recover. At the same time, IF the root of the problem is completely pulled out. It would be good to see OMiss succeed the 100% clean way, I said IF.