Coaches never like to look past the next opponent on the schedule, and for Liberty football and Hugh Freeze that next opponent is UMass. The Flames and Minutemen are set to kickoff this Saturday from Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, Virginia. But that didn’t stop the media from asking Coach Freeze about the next opponent on Liberty’s schedule on Thursday.

Of course, the Flames will travel to Oxford, Mississippi to take on No. 10 Ole Miss next Saturday in a game scheduled to kickoff at noon EST and will be televised on the SEC Network. That game has been one that has been circled on the calendar ever since Freeze was hired as Liberty’s football coach in December 2018. Now, only one game and just over a week stands between Freeze making the return to where he was head coach of the Rebels from 2012-2016.

“I probably thought more about it back in the summer, but not much right now,” Freeze said when first asked about the upcoming game between Liberty and Ole Miss. “I will, obviously, as soon as this game is over, it will be a lot of thinking about it for sure.”

Liberty has only faced one other SEC program in school history, getting embarrassed at Auburn, 53-0, on Nov. 17, 2018. This is a much different Liberty team that will head into an SEC venue this time, though as Freeze will guide the Flames to his home state of Mississippi next week.

“My initial reaction was let’s get out of that game,” Freeze said of his first thoughts when seeing Liberty was scheduled to face his former team. “Then, you get into the season and you start getting to know and love your team and coaches and school that you’re with, and relishing opportunities to go into great places and play. That’s kind of the way I feel right now. Again, I haven’t thought about it a lot this week, but I want our kids and people to enjoy the opportunity that will present us by going to a great place and playing a great team and great people there. I think we will look at it as a great opportunity when that time comes.”

Freeze is originally from Mississippi and was first on staff as an assistant at Ole Miss from 2005-2007. He then returned as head coach in 2012, a post he manned through the 2016 season. Freeze and the Rebels saw tremendous success during his tenure as head coach, including trips to the Peach and Sugar Bowls and national rankings in the top 10 in two different seasons. His tenure there included numerous wins over nationally ranked programs including Georgia, Texas A&M Auburn, Texas, LSU, Alabama, Tennessee, and Oklahoma State.

“Great memories of great victories and great friends is what I choose to remember,” Freeze said when asked Thursday of his memories from his time at Ole Miss. “We had some epic wins there. We proved that University can win in that difficult conference. I think we beat everybody at least twice, had wins against Texas, Georgia, Boise State, and others that we crossed over against. I think we proved that you can win there. All the memories of the great players and the relationships with the people and the players and the wins there, that’s what I will choose to remember.”

Things went south at the end of Freeze’s tenure at Ole Miss as he resigned in July 2017 amid an NCAA investigation into alleged recruiting violations and phone records of calls to an escort service from Hugh Freeze’s university issued phone. There’s a chance he could face a negative reaction when he steps on the field at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford next week.

“It’s 5 or 6 years removed from that,” Freeze said when asked about his possible reception. “Here’s the deal, I love my team and coaches and irregardless of how I’m treated, I walk out of there after that game with a wife and kids that love me and know me best and friends that know me best and coaching staff that know me best and even friends there that know me have all texted, ‘can I see you at the bus?’ The ones that choose to treat me any differently than I would hope to be treated, I can’t really worry about that. I know I am a lucky man and very, very blessed to have what I have in a great family and friends and staff and kids and university here. If it’s some of that, so be it, but I know who wins at the end of the day.”