Mark Schlabach discusses what transpired at Ole Miss that led to Hugh Freeze stepping down and how "bizarre" the timing is. When Steve Robertson was sifting through Freeze's phone records on July 5 as part of his research for an upcoming book he's writing, he discovered phone calls he expected to see.
There were mostly calls to recruits and assistant coaches. But when Robertson saw a phone number with a area code, he was stunned by what he discovered in a Google search. A call made on Jan. Robertson then asked his wife to read him the telephone number again to make sure it was correct.
The escort service ads came up again. Mars had been introduced to Robertson through a third party he found while doing online research into Nutt's case.
They've since developed a close working relationship, talking on the phone several times a day and sharing what they found in their investigations. When Robertson told Mars to enter the phone number in Google, Mars was silent for nearly a minute before yelling an expletive in excitement.
To understand what has transpired in the last couple of years in Oxford, Mississippi, it helps to know the nature of the rivalry between Ole Miss and Mississippi State. While this seems like the kind of scandal that could only happen in college football, it's really the kind of scandal that could only happen in a state like Mississippi.
