The Houston Nutt-Ole Miss lawsuit is over, but not before it brought down Hugh Freeze

Nutt’s lawsuit ended without drama, but it started with plenty.

In July 2017, former Ole Miss football coach Houston Nutt sued his old school, alleging a smear campaign to pin many of the Rebels’ NCAA investigation problems on him.

As news about the story began to filter out last year, some media reports indicated that much of the NCAA’s probe wasn’t focused on the staff of then-head coach Hugh Freeze. The upshot of that is that Ole Miss’ previous head coach, Nutt, was somewhere near the center of the investigation. Nutt and his lawyer, Thomas Mars, alleged that Ole Miss officials orchestrated those reports. But the vast majority of the NCAA’s charges against Ole Miss are against Freeze’s administration, not Nutt’s.

The lawsuit has settled, Nutt and Ole Miss announced Monday.

“Certain statements made by University employees in January 2016 appear to have contributed to misleading media reports about Coach Nutt,” Ole Miss said in a statement without a specific name attached. “To the extent any such statements harmed Coach Nutt’s reputation, the University apologizes, as this was not the intent.”

The school notes that the NCAA didn’t name or implicate Nutt in any wrongdoing. In his half of the statement, Nutt simply says he’s “pleased to put the lawsuit behind me” and wishes the Ole Miss football team good luck. So, that’s over.

Nutt’s suit ended quietly, but it left its mark.

Freeze resigned suddenly in July. Nutt’s fingerprints were all over that.

During the dispute between Nutt and Ole Miss, his attorney uncovered damaging phone records that led the school to oust Freeze, USA Today reported. Mars found a call to a phone number tied to an escort service, and Ole Miss fired Freeze shortly after Nutt’s lawyer brought that morsel to the school’s attention.

That Nutt effectively got Freeze fired via records is so ironic, given the way he exited Arkansas in 2007. Nutt took the Ole Miss job the next season:

Essentially, Nutt and his camp got his successor at Ole Miss ousted in a fashion similar to what Nutt himself faced 10 years ago at Arkansas.

A series of records requests preceded Nutt’s departure from Arkansas in 2007. One request, for Nutt’s cell phone records, revealed more than 2,000 texts between the coach and a local news anchor. Rumors circulated that Nutt was having an affair, which he denied. His wife wrote a blog post in his defense. A lawsuit was threatened, but ultimately not filed.

In another episode, a friend of Nutt and his brother sent a disparaging email to Arkansas freshman quarterback Mitch Mustain in 2006. Nutt reprimanded the woman who sent the email to his quarterback, but the situation was a public embarrassment. It all became part of a sweeping public records uproar while Nutt was in Fayetteville.

Nutt’s lawsuit ends as amicably as it could’ve, with the two parties issuing conciliatory statements and parting on publicly good terms. But Nutt made this thing hurt.