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University of Mississippi Athletics Director Pete Boone announced today that the 2011 football season will be the last for head coach Houston Nutt.

In less than two months after being introduced as the new head football coach, Hugh Freeze put together a 19-player recruiting class, including 13 who signed their National Letters of Intent yesterday. He held together much of this year’s class despite the coaching change and made a splash with the additions of Aberdeen defensive end Channing Ward and East Mississippi Community College quarterback Bo Wallace, who signed during the junior college transfer signing period. All things considered, Freeze was pleased with his first recruiting class and is looking forward to the future.

Pitchers:

While there is still a lot to be determined in this young pitching staff, one thing is clear: there is depth. The weekend starters are not yet set, but it looks as though freshman Bobby Wahl and senior R.J. Hively will take the hill on Fridays and Saturdays, respectively, for the Rebels. The Sunday spot seems to be down to three guys, but it’s anyone’s battle at the start of spring practice.

“Coach (Mike Bianco) has said that whoever performs the best is going to get the weekend spots, so we’ll see what happens,” Wahl said.

Sophomore Mike Mayers may have a slight lead at the moment with a season of SEC experience under his belt. However, freshmen Josh Laxer and Hawtin Buchanan, as well as juniors Tanner Bailey and Dylan Chavez, are right there in the mix. Look for Mayers to take the Sunday spot to start the season with two of the other four pitchers to fill the mid-week spots.

“(Mayers’) slider is something he’s worked on since last year,” head coach Mike Bianco said. “I think it’s just normal progression. He pitched over 50 innings last season, which is a ton for a freshman. The slider is better, but I think he’s better all around.”

Junior Brett Huber will be counted on in the late innings of the game and fill the closer’s role as he did his freshman year.

“Right now, I’m just working on commanding the strike zone and stuff like that,” Huber said. “I’m just working on being more consistent out there. Last year I had some problems with that.”

When the Ole Miss basketball team takes the floor Saturday afternoon to face South Carolina, one Rebel will be facing former teammates.

Murphy Holloway transferred from Ole Miss after his sophomore season and returned home to South Carolina, where he walked on and redshirted before returning to Ole Miss this past fall for his junior season.

The UMAA campaign Forward Together has now raised over $59 million since beginning its capital campaign fundraiser in August to build a new basketball arena and add seating to bowl in the North Endzone of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium by the start of the 2015-16 school year.

Chancellor Dan Jones formally launched the search for a new Director of Athletics today, announcing the members of the search committee, scheduling the first committee meeting, and setting expectations for the search.

As with the head football coach search, the co-chairs for the search committee are Ole Miss football legend Archie Manning and FedEx executive Mike Glenn. Other members of the search committee include the current President of the Ole Miss Alumni Association, Richard Noble, two faculty members Ron Rychlak and Ethel Young-Minor, and UMAA Foundation governing board member, Cal Mayo. Noble, Rychlak, and Young-Minor also served on the search committee that recommended hiring Head Football Coach Hugh Freeze.

Sparked by the return of junior Murphy Holloway, the Rebels bounced back from a disappointing 81-55 loss at LSU with a 71-63 win over Arkansas Wednesday night. 

Ole Miss improves to 11-5 and 1-1 in Southeastern Conference play, while Arkansas falls to 12-4 and 1-1. The Rebels also remain perfect at home with a 7-0 record at Tad Smith Coliseum.

Ole Miss head football coach Hugh Freeze announced the first signees of his Rebel tenure Wednesday, receiving national letters of intent from junior college standouts Darone Bailey, Pierce Burton and Dehendret Collins. All three players will enroll at Ole Miss in January and begin competing in the 2012 season.

Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze announced on Thursday the first additions to his Rebel football staff. Dave Wommack was named the Rebels’ defensive coordinator and safeties coach, Maurice Harris will serve as tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator, Tom Allen will be the linebackers coach, and Chris Kiffin was named defensive line coach.

All four assistant coaches were members of Freeze’s staff at Arkansas State.

After arguably the worst season in school history, new head coach Hugh Freeze won the press conference and took the first step to rebuilding the football program and uniting the fan base.

A Mississippi native, inspirational leader and one of the nation’s top rising coaches, Hugh Freeze was the first choice to return championships to Ole Miss Football and will be introduced as the Rebels’ 37th head coach today at 2 p.m. CT at the Gertrude Castellow Ford Center for the Performing Arts on campus.

The event is open to the public and will be streamed free online at OleMissSports.com.