Content about quarterback

Now that National Signing Day has come and gone, recruiting junkies only have one thing left to do: wonder. 

Quarterback

Signees: Bo Wallace, Maikhail Miller (Greyshirt from last year’s class)

Grade: C+

Ole Miss failed to sign a true high school quarterback in this class, but brought in the NJCAA Offensive Player of the Year in Bo Wallace who has three years of eligibility left. Miller greyshirted from the 2011 class and enrolled in January. He’s a developmental player who will need time before competing for the starting job. Wallace should immediately compete for the starting job, but it hurt to not land either Anthony Alford or Jeremy Liggins, who committed to Southern Miss and LSU, respectively.

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.

Monday night at Irie on the Square, Lafayette High School quarterback and Oxford native Jeremy Liggins stood up and faced a capacity crowd with five helmets of college teams on the table. Those five helmets represented Alabama, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Auburn. Quickly, Liggins reached out and grabbed the LSU helmet, saying simply, “Go Tigers, baby.”

With signing day less than a week away, The Daily Mississippian’s Bennett Hipp gives a few of the prospects that are still being pursued by Ole Miss. This isn’t an inclusive list, and names are listed alphabetically.

On Monday, Hugh Freeze was officially announced as the 37th head coach of the Ole Miss Rebel football program, but it wasn’t a hire the entire fan base loved. 

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.

1. LSU (12-0, 8-0 SEC, 1st last week): LSU all but locked up a spot in the BCS National Championship with a 41-17 trouncing of Arkansas, the Tigers’ third win over a top-three team this season. In all, LSU has beat seven top-25 teams by an average margin of victory of more than 20 points. Despite trailing 14-0 early in the second quarter, the Tigers outgained the Razorbacks 494-254, including 286-47 on the ground. Sophomore defensive back Tyrann Mathieu was the player of the game, tying the game on an electrifying 92-yard punt return for a touchdown, forcing two fumbles and recovering one of the them. LSU looks to keep its perfect season intact when they play Georgia in Saturday’s SEC Championship.

This week: vs. Georgia (10-2, 7-1 SEC), 3 p.m., CBS

When it was announced on Nov. 7 that head coach Houston Nutt would not return next season, he remained to coach the last three games of the 2011 season. It was not the swan song Nutt had in mind. After blowout losses to Louisiana Tech and No. 1 LSU at home, the Houston Nutt era at Ole Miss (2-10, 0-8 SEC) reached its conclusion on a rain-soaked Saturday night in Starkville.

On Saturday night, every Ole Miss senior will be playing their last game inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, and they will do so against the No. 1 LSU Tigers. It will also mark head coach Houston Nutt’s last home game in Oxford, before the Rebels close out the 2011 season next week at Mississippi State. For now, all Nutt is worried about is LSU.

As soon as the Ole Miss head coaching position became open this past Monday, former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach’s name was quickly linked with the job, among other former and current head coaches and coordinators.

Currently an announcer and analyst for CBS Sports, Leach boasts 23 years of coaching experience, including an 84-43 record in 10 seasons as the Texas Tech head coach. He brought his patented “Air Raid” offense to Lubbock, and the Red Raiders never had a losing season, reached 10 straight bowl games and shared the Big 12 South Title in 2008.

When asked about the Ole Miss job, he said it would be a job that “anybody would be interested in.”