Photo by Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images(OXFORD, Miss.) — Ole Miss head football coach Hugh Freeze resigned the position on Thursday night, effective immediately.
ANNOUNCEMENT | Hugh Freeze has resigned effective immediately. Matt Luke interim head coach. Press conference live at 7:30 PM CT on ESPNews.
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) July 20, 2017
Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork said at a press conference Thursday that a pattern of phone calls made to a number associated with a female escort service was the reason for Freeze’s resignation.
The school did announce that co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Matt Luke would be named interim head coach.
Earlier Thursday, Yahoo! Sports reported on a phone call made from Freeze’s school-issued phone to a female escort service. That call was raised to the school’s attention by former Ole Miss football coach Houston Nutt, during a lawsuit.
Bjork told ESPN that as university officials looked deeper into the phone records for Freeze’s school-issued phone, they found a pattern of calls. “It was troubling,” Bjork said.
Bjork added that had Freeze not chosen to resign, the school would have exercised a “moral turpitude” caluse to fire him.
Ole Miss has been under NCAA investigation over possible recruiting violations. The school had stood firmly behind Freeze in that matter.
Freeze went 39-25 in five years at Ole Miss.
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