Not all of it is good.
The Rebels’ first-year head coach hinted at a substantial rebuilding process for the program beginning with spring practice, which began on Friday. Ole Miss is coming off a 2-10 season that was among the worst in school history — costing fourth-year coach Houston Nutt his job in the process — and the roster is full of question marks as Freeze begins to see what talent he has on the current roster.
"I know you have a lot of questions," Freeze said during a press conference on Thursday. "We do also."
Freeze was an assistant at Ole Miss from 2005-07 under former coach Ed Orgeron. Though the Rebels’ undoubtedly underachieved on the field during those seasons, they amassed a substantial crop of talent that turned into future NFL players like defensive end Greg Hardy, offensive tackle Michael Oher and receiver Dexter McCluster.Now that he returns as the head coach, Freeze doesn’t see the same caliber of talent.
"Comparing the team to when I was last here," Freeze said. "They look different."
There will be position battles all over the roster, including quarterback, where several candidates will get a look. Junior college transfer Bo Wallace and returners Randall Mackey, Barry Brunetti and Zack Stoudt are all in the mix.
"I really don’t know where things are right now," Freeze said. "I’ve said from day one that we have to create a great competition in that room and I expect to do that this spring with Bo and Brunetti and Stoudt and Mackey ... but whoever takes the first snap I promise you it will have nothing to do with who is the lead candidate for that job."
Mackey played the best out of the group last season — though that’s a relative assessment considering the offense was awful for most of the season. Mackey completed 77 of 155 passes (49.7 percent) for 1,112 yards, seven touchdowns and five interceptions.
The Rebels are also thin in the backfield and must find two new starters at offensive tackle after the departures of Bradley Sowell and Bobby Massie. Freeze said sophomore Aaron Morris and junior college transfer Pierce Burton are the two leading candidates for the starting jobs heading into spring practice.
Though the roster isn’t deep, Freeze said the team can’t shy away from a physical spring.
"Spring practice is to develop a toughness and a mindset," Freeze said. "Hopefully we will come through it healthy. But I don’t know how to become a better football team than to put them through some physical, high-tempo practices."
Freeze said the defense would lean on veterans like linebacker Mike Marry and cornerback Charles Sawyer as the group tries to improve from a year ago, when the Rebels gave up more than 32 points per game.
He said development along the defensive line would be especially critical.
"Some of those guys — they have got to increase our pass rush capability," Freeze said. "I didn’t see that last year (on tape). I hope it’s there and for some reason it just didn’t get done."
