Two former Ole Miss assistants and the current recruiting director were either fired or resigned from their positions amid an NCAA investigation.
Chris Vaughn, an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator between 2008 and 2011 at Ole Miss, was relieved of his duties as assistant coach at Texas Feb. 11 because of his alleged involvement in the NCAA violations at Ole Miss, according to multiple reports.
Branden Wenzel, the assistant recruiting director at Ole Miss, resigned Feb. 12, associate A.D. for media and public relations Kyle Campbell said.
“Branden Wenzel resigned to pursue other opportunities,” he said. “The matter is unrelated to the NCAA case.”
In addition, David Saunders, an assistant coach in 2010 at Ole Miss, resigned from his role as an assistant at Louisiana- Lafayette in 2014 because of an NCAA probe into the school. While looking into the Louisiana-Lafayette violations, the NCAA discovered previous violations committed at Ole Miss, according to multiple reports.
Last week, Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork revealed in an interview with The Clarion-Ledger the NCAA investigation was over, and he doesn’t expect a second letter.
As reported last week by The Daily Helmsman, Ole Miss received a notice of allegations from the NCAA Jan. 29. The notice was a result of an NCAA investigation that began in 2012, when women’s basketball coach Adrian Wiggins and two assistants were fired due to academic and recruiting misconduct.
When the reports of the allegations first came out, it was believed most of the allegations involved women’s basketball and track and field, and most of the football- related allegations occurred under former coach Houston Nutt.
Last week, however, reports revealed that of the 28 total violations, 13 involved the football team, and nine of those 13 occurred during the Hugh Freeze era.
Freeze, who was hired in 2011 to replace Nutt, brought in two top-5 recruiting classes in the past four years (2013 and 2016).
Out of the 13 allegations against the football team, five revolved around star left tackle Laremy Tunsil, four involved Nutt’s staff (specifically Saunders) and four resulted from a violation of the “bump rule,” an unscheduled and illegal contact between a college coach and a prospective student-athlete.
Tunsil was suspended seven games during the 2015 season after the NCAA found the player received improper benefits, such as the use of three loaner cars over a six-month period.
The NCAA gave Saunders an eightyear show-cause after it was found he made an effort to arrange fraudulent college entrance exam scores for recruits.
Louisiana-Lafayette did not receive a postseason ban, but the school was put on athletic probation for two years and lost 11 scholarships over three seasons as a result of the probe.
The specific allegations against the school are contained in the notice sent by the NCAA on Jan. 29. However, Ole Miss has shot down requests to reveal the allegations in order to keep the identity of those involved private.
“Out of fairness to the individuals involved and the integrity of the NCAA progress, we will not provide further details or comment until everyone has had an opportunity to review the allegations and respond,” Bjork said in a statement on Jan. 30.
The school denied Freeze was named in the notice of allegations, and it is believed Freeze was not involved in any of the violations.
