The Ole Miss Rebels are getting ready for their upcoming bowl date with the Pitt Panthers like a whole lot of other teams around college football.
But in the meantime, winning or losing in the bowl game really doesn’t seem to have all that much importance to the outlook of football at Ole Miss. Just being in a bowl game is already paying off in a big way for the Rebels. Well, not necessarily for the players themselves but at least for the men who run the team. They are cashing in big time.
Coach Hugh Freeze came away with a nice contract extension and raise. The assistant coaches will get a nice bump and the football facilities are getting an upgrade.
Ole Miss went 2-10 a year ago and that cost Houston Nutt his job as head coach and opened the door for Freeze, a former Rebel assistant, to return to Oxford as the head man. The Rebels improved by four games to a 6-6 record. Last week athletic director Ross Bjork extended Freeze for another year and raised his salary to $2 million. In addition, the salary pool for Freeze’s assistants will be increased by 10 percent.
“Coach Freeze and his staff quickly changed the culture and added the necessary confidence in our football program, and we look forward to seeing our rise among the SEC elite under his leadership. We all believe that Coach Freeze is the perfect fit for Ole Miss, and we are just beginning to see the fruits of everyone’s hard work,” Bjork said.
“The facility enhancements are all about giving our coaches a greater platform to recruit from and our student-athletes the best tools to be successful. While we are proud of our current facilities, we cannot simply maintain or we fall behind. These enhancements will benefit our entire athletics program and place our football facilities among the finest in the nation.”
It is already paying off. Just days ago Lavon Hooks, a 6-foot-4, 290-pound junior college defensive lineman, cast his lot with the Rebels. He was being recruited by Nebraska and Auburn among others.
“I want to thank Ross and our administration for their commitment to this program, our players and coaches. My family and I love Ole Miss, and this is a great place to call home,” Freeze said. “While we are proud of our accomplishments this season, we have yet to reach our goal of returning championships to theUniversityofMississippi. This investment and particularly the facility improvements are a major step in providing our players the best student-athlete experience and creating an environment that will attract the nation’s top recruits.”
Among the facility upgrades include a new team meeting room on the lawn at the south end zone of Vaught Hemingway Stadium. Adjacent to the team room will be a new head coach’s office, putting all of the staff on the same level in the renovated coaching suite.
With the construction of the new team room, a new front door and recruiting room will also be erected on the sight of the current team room. The recruiting room will contain trophies, with hopefully a BBVA Compass Bowl trophy added to the collection, memorable images and interactive exhibits that will celebrate the tradition of Rebel football with recruits, alumni and fans.
There was more that sparked the upgrades beside just the 6-6 record. After announcing the acceptance of the bowl bid, tickets started flying out of the Ole Miss ticket office. In a time when some teams lose money over bowl games because of having to buy their unsold tickets, Ole Miss has not had that problem.
As of close of business day on Wednesday, the Rebels’ ticket office had sold 23,381 tickets and that doesn’t include the number of tickets bought through ticket brokers and the bowl office itself. After selling out its original ticket allotment of 10,000 in two days, the Rebel ticket office requested additional tickets from the bowl and then agreed to accept a portion of Pitt’s ticket allotment and sold 5,556 of Pitt’s tickets.
“We expected Rebel Nation to come out in full force for the BBVA Compass Bowl, and we could not be prouder of the crowd we will have in Birmingham,” said Bjork. “This outpouring of support only furthers the momentum of our football program and our reputation as one of the most attractive bowl teams in the nation. The challenge to Rebel Nation to break the BBVA Compass Bowl attendance record has been heard loud and clear.”
This will be Ole Miss’ 34th bowl game. The Rebels have a 21-12 overall bowl record and have won eight of their last nine bowl games.