Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Coach Hugh Freeze has engineered quite a turnaround at Arkansas State. So it’s no surprise to see his name pop up as a candidate for open jobs.

But it was a surprise — apparently even to Freeze — when Bleacher Report declared him as the next Ole Miss coach. A post from the site (which spends tons of money on organization and marketing, but still can’t seem to shake its reputation because of “reports” like this) on Saturday declared Freeze as the guy, leading to some panic among ASU supporters.

Freeze eventually took to social media site Twitter to refute the post, which cited a source “close to the program” who said Freeze would be announced “on Sunday as [Ole Miss’] newest head coach.” Here’s what Freeze had to say about the post, which was later removed from Bleacher Report:

“#RedWolfNation the report in bleacherreport.com is NOT True! I am still the Red Wolves coach.”

Now, Freeze doesn’t offer an all out denial he’s interested in the job. And he doesn’t declare he’s a Red Wolf for life.

But he did the wise thing in quieting the chatter about this particular online “report.” Freeze has a game left at Arkansas State on Saturday and a chance to clinch win No. 10. Plus, the Red Wolves are scheduled to play in a bowl on Jan. 8.

Until he's locked up long-term at ASU or takes a new job, Freeze’s name will be mentioned as a candidate. In fact, the ESPNU crew calling Mississippi State-Ole Miss mentioned Freeze and said he’d been "turning a lot of heads."

Still, upgrading Freeze’s status from candidate to hire at Ole Miss or anywhere else (expect to hear him connected with Memphis, too) is a bit premature.

Arkansas State is working on putting together a better compensation package for Freeze, who is currently the lowest paid coach in FBS and arguably the best value in college coaching.