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Ranking every SEC football coach ahead of SEC Media Days: Where does Butch Jones stand?

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 15: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide shakes hands with head coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers after their 49-10 win at Neyland Stadium on October 15, 2016 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 15: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide shakes hands with head coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers after their 49-10 win at Neyland Stadium on October 15, 2016 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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OXFORD, MS – OCTOBER 01: Head coach Hugh Freeze of the Mississippi Rebels reacts during the second half of a game against the Memphis Tigers at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on October 1, 2016 in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
OXFORD, MS – OCTOBER 01: Head coach Hugh Freeze of the Mississippi Rebels reacts during the second half of a game against the Memphis Tigers at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on October 1, 2016 in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /

By any standard, this should be a ridiculous ranking. Hugh Freeze has had the Ole Miss Rebels in the Top 5 at one point and competing for No. 1 in the country, he oversaw the restoration of the program by bringing in elite talent, and they’ve only missed a bowl game once in his five years there.

Oh, and he did all that in the SEC West.

However, Freeze has the program on very unstable ground right now, and that has to count for something too.

Ever since last year, NCAA investigations have been clouding the program, and right now the Rebels are in all-out war against the institution.

If Ole Miss somehow pulls this off and escaped unscathed, Freeze jumps back up the SEC coaching ranks. But for now, that’s far from a guarantee.

As a result, we have dropped Freeze to No. 12 on our list.

It doesn’t help that with these investigations, the Rebels fell to 5-7 last year with horrific blowout losses to the Vanderbilt Commodores and Mississippi State Bulldogs to end the season.

That sent a clear signal that the program won’t be back to winning under Freeze until it rids itself of these distractions. So given the state of Ole Miss football, Freeze does not belong any higher on the list.

His in-game coaching ability means nothing right now. The only benefit of the doubt that we are giving him is he’s coaching in the SEC West.

And quite frankly, if you’re even slightly unstable in that division, your team is in serious trouble.

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