SEC Media Days: Ole Miss unphased by NCAA investigation

Today was the final day of SEC Media Days in Hoover, Alabama and the Ole Miss football program was on the hot seat. Just one day after former coach Houston Nutt filed a lawsuit against the university, Hugh Freeze and his current players were left to pick up the pieces.
At one point during this morning’s press conference, Freeze said the timing of the civil suit was “ironic.” For the most part, the Rebels were able to brush off the NCAA investigation and the players were quick to back their coach one hundred percent.
Unfortunately for them, that loyalty doesn’t make their troubles disappear with a self-imposed post-season ban looming large for the 2017 season. All the Rebels can do now is go out and play football and fight for one another in the face of adversity. “It’s been all too long that I’ve sat here at SEC Media Days and obviously some of it is our own doing, but it’s been too long that I can’t sit here and talk about our program being relevant in the SEC West,” said Freeze.
Defensive tackle Breeland Speaks said, “When the first thing was handed down we decided then that we were all together, regardless of what gets passed down to us, regardless of what anybody says about us, we’re going to do whatever we need to do to succeed this year. We really don’t pay too much attention to negativity. Guys want to make sure we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing to be great.”
Quarterback Shea Patterson said, “My goal as an individual, especially as with our teammates, is to win a national championship, but we still get to go out there and play 12 games in the best conference in the country against the best players. We get to go to Cal. So we’re just taking advantage of what we’re able to have and that’s to go out there and play the game that we love.”
According to the NCAA’s website, the committee on infractions meets three more times this year in August, October, and December.