Hugh Freeze confirms he's not a candidate for Ensworth football coordinator job

Former Ole Miss football coach Hugh Freeze told The Tennessean on Friday that he is not a candidate for a coaching position at Ensworth, dispelling a report by The Rebel Walk.

Freeze, who resigned at Ole Miss in July, coached at the SEC school as an assistant when new Ensworth coach Jeremy Garrett played for the Rebels. The two have remained in contact.

"I am good friends with (former coach and current AD) Ricky Bowers and as many people know Jeremy Garrett played for me and I want to see him succeed so we talk often," Freeze wrote in an email. "On a recent trip to Nashville, my wife and I stopped by to say hello to both of them. From that, I can only assume that’s where all these rumors are coming from.

"There was never a job offer extended to me by Ensworth."

According to The Rebel Walk, Ensworth was considering Freeze to be the school's offensive coordinator.

Garrett told The Tennessean on Thursday night that Freeze was not a candidate for the school's offensive coordinator position.

Garrett wrote in an email late Thursday that Freeze "has NOT been offered a position at Ensworth."

He clarified in a later email that Freeze was not a candidate for a coaching position. 

Garrett, who was named Ensworth's football coach last week when Bowers stepped down, played at Ole Miss from 2005-2007. Freeze was an assistant from 2006-07 at Ole Miss and became the head coach in 2012.

Garrett earned All-SEC academic team honors and received the Chucky Mullins Courage Award at Ole Miss.

Freeze resigned from Ole Miss after the university announced it had discovered a pattern of personal misconduct. That stemmed from a USA TODAY Sports report that a one-minute phone call on Freeze's university-issued cell phone was made to an escort service.

Freeze has experience coaching at the high school level. He climbed up the coaching ranks starting at Briarcrest Christian in Memphis, where he went 305-63 coaching the school's girls basketball team and won four state championships. He won two state championships as the football coach as well during his tenure from 1995-2004.

Freeze went on to coach football at Lambuth from 2008-09 and at Arkansas State in 2011.

Reach Tom Kreager at tkreager@tennessean.com or 615-259-8089 and on Twitter @Kreager.