Secret Behind Ole Miss' Sudden Ability To Land Top Recruits Is Not Scandalous

Wikimedia CommonsHugh Freeze is in his second season as head coach at Ole Miss, but he raised many eyebrows on National Signing Day when he landed the top high school recruit in the country, one of the top five recruiting classes overall, and the best recruiting class in school history.

But Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork told Graham Watson of Yahoo! Sports, that their success was just part of a plan that worked perfectly.

In short, while most schools in Ole Miss' position give up early on the top players, Freeze went after those players aggressively. And once they landed the biggest fish, the rest of the players just fell into place.

The key was defensive end Robert Nkemdiche, the nation's top-ranked player. His older brother is a linebacker at Ole Miss. And once Robert said Ole Miss was one of his possible landing spots, it legitimized the Rebels in the eyes of other recruits. Bjork referred to the situation as "the perfect storm" and said things then started "snowballing."

So Ole Miss may have just been lucky this year and not scandalous. But now people are talking and surely next year's recruits have noticed. The result might be that Ole Miss will be one of the strongest programs in the country in a few years.