OXFORD — Much has changed since Hugh Freeze was around the University of Mississippi’s football team on a regular basis.
Not all of it is good.
The Rebels’ first-year head coach hinted at a substantial rebuilding process for the program beginning with spring practice, which began Friday. Ole Miss is coming off a 2-10 season that was among the worst in school history — costing fourth-year coach Houston Nutt his job in the process — and the roster is full of question marks as Freeze begins to see what talent he has on the current roster.
“I know you have a lot of questions,” Freeze said during a press conference on Thursday. “We do also.”
Freeze was an assistant at Ole Miss from 2005-07 under former coach Ed Orgeron. Though the Rebels’ undoubtedly underachieved on the field during those seasons, they amassed a substantial crop of talent that turned into future NFL players like defensive end Greg Hardy, offensive tackle Michael Oher and receiver Dexter McCluster.
Now that he returns as the head coach, Freeze doesn’t see the same caliber of talent.
“Comparing the team to when I was last here,” Freeze said. “They look different.”
Training in helmets and shorts, the team worked for just under two hours. Freeze was pleased with how the players responded in the first of the 15 spring practices.
“I think we won the day,” Freeze said. “In our team meeting today, we asked them to give us 15 days of great attitude and effort. By no means will we be perfect, and we weren’t today. There were a lot of mistakes that need to be cleaned up, and we’ll evaluate the film on that. But as far as attitude and effort and we’re putting in a new offense, defense and tempo and trying to make it as chaotic as we can, I thought they responded pretty well.”
One adjustment is Freeze’s up-tempo style of practice, where there is very little time between drills.
“I was pleasantly surprised at how they handled the tempo,” he said. “Coach Paul Jackson has done a good job with his weight program, and our whole philosophy there was the same tempo — 45 minutes of working out and 45 minutes of conditioning. You’re in and out. I try to make that same promise. When we finish the script, that period is over. But give us great tempo.”
There will be position battles all over the roster, including quarterback, where several candidates will get a look. Junior college transfer Bo Wallace and returners Randall Mackey, Barry Brunetti, and Zack Stoudt are all in the mix.
“I really don’t know where things are,” Freeze said. “I’ve said from day one we have to create a great competition in that room and I expect to do that this spring with Bo and Brunetti and Stoudt and Mackey … but whoever takes the first snap I promise you it will have nothing to do with who is the lead candidate for that job.”
Mackey played the best out of the group last season — though that’s a relative assessment considering the offense was awful for most of the season. Mackey completed 77 of 155 passes (49.7 percent) for 1,112 yards, seven touchdowns and five interceptions.
The Rebels are also thin in the backfield and must find two new starters at offensive tackle after the departures of Bradley Sowell and Bobby Massie. Freeze said sophomore Aaron Morris and junior college transfer Pierce Burton are the two leading candidates for the starting jobs heading into spring practice.
Though the roster isn’t deep, Freeze said the team can’t shy away from a physical spring.
“Spring practice is to develop a toughness and a mind-set,” Freeze said. “Hopefully we will come through it healthy. But I don’t know how to become a better football team than to put them through some physical, high-tempo practices.”
Freeze said the defense would lean on veterans like linebacker Mike Marry and cornerback Charles Sawyer as the group tries to improve from a year ago, when the Rebels gave up more than 32 points per game.
He said development along the defensive line would be especially critical.
“Some of those guys — they have got to increase our pass rush capability,” Freeze said. “I didn’t see that last year (on tape). I hope it’s there and for some reason it just didn’t get done.”
On top of evaluating personnel, the new coaching staff also will implement its playbook. Freeze said he hoped to have about 50 percent of the offense installed by the end of the spring, while the defense hopes to have about 75 percent of its playbook available.
The second of Ole Miss’ four open practices for fans will be at 10:30 a.m. today on the practice fields.
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