Freeze takes responsibility for Ole Miss’ troubles

8:40 AM ET

SANDESTIN, Fla. — Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze told ESPN.com on Monday that he accepts responsibility for the Rebels’ NCAA troubles, but adamantly denies that he or anybody on his staff knowingly violated rules.

Ole Miss last week self-imposed the loss of 11 football scholarships over a four-year period from 2015-18 as part of its response to an NCAA Notice of Allegations, stemming from an NCAA investigation into the Rebels’ athletic department that began nearly four years ago and turned up 28 rules violations in football, women’s basketball and track and field. Of the 13 alleged violations in football, nine were committed on Freeze’s watch, and four were the more serious Level I violations.

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“The first thing I would say is that I own it. That’s part of it when you’re the head coach. You take the good with the bad,” said Freeze, who’s in Sandestin for the SEC spring meetings. “But there’s a big difference between making mistakes in recruiting and going out there with the intent to cheat. I don’t have any information that anybody on my staff has been involved in any illegal payments to players or offering any inducements to players, and if I did have that information, I would fire them.”

Freeze understands that the NCAA cloud over his program may hover for a while longer. Ole Miss has requested that its meeting with the NCAA’s …

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