Hugh Freeze, SEC Coach of the Year? Don’t laugh. Right now, he’s more deserving than anyone else.

The Rebels have exceeded even the wildest expectations and are one win away from bowl eligibility, an amazing achievement considering the empty magazine in Oxford.

The first-year coach, best known for being “Blind Side” star Michael Oher’s high school coach and turning Lambuth and Arkansas State from also-rans into contenders, has done a wonderful job picking up the pieces from Houston Nutt’s tenure of two Cotton Bowl wins with Ed Orgeron’s players and not much else.

Just a look at the recruiting numbers in Nutt’s final three years and it’s easy to see how Freeze might’ve had a ready-made excuse sitting in his drawer.

In 2009, Nutt signed 38 players — the poster child for oversigning — and 21 of those players didn’t qualify or departed the program. For those keeping score at home, 25 is the maximum number of recruits the NCAA allows schools to sign each year and a lot of the class wasn’t expected to qualify anyway. Those players would be redshirt juniors and seniors this year and 55 percent didn’t make it that far.

Of the 22 Nutt signed in 2010, nine of them were lost. His final class in 2011, with 22 players signed, six departed the program or didn’t qualify, which is not as bad.

While Nutt spent the rest of his time at Oxford looking for the next great quarterback after Jevan Snead left early for the NFL Draft, Freeze wasted little time, bringing in Bo Wallace from East Mississippi Community College. Wallace has lived up to his billing after his lone season in the JUCO ranks, throwing for 10 touchdowns and rushing for five more. Even better, he has two more years of eligibility after this season.

Already, in his first year, Freeze’s team (5-3, 2-2 SEC) has snapped a 16-game SEC losing streak against Auburn and rallied past resurgent Arkansas. The Rebels gave top-ranked Alabama its toughest game of the year and were a couple of defensive stops away from a big upset over the SEC West’s biggest surprise team, Texas A&M.

Freeze will have plenty of competition in the race for SEC Coach of the Year.

Nick Saban has done wonders with Alabama this season. But the Crimson Tide is stocked with years of Saban’s recruiting riches and is defending BCS champions. Will Muschamp, whose intensity glows on the sidelines like a empty pot left on a hot stove, has Florida back to upper echelon of the SEC despite a disappointing loss last week to Georgia. Mark Richt has Georgia back in the picture for a berth in the SEC title game.

But all three are well-stocked, Rolls Royce programs with gigantic facilities and athletic department budgets. While Saban, Muschamp — a former Saban assistant — and Richt are excellent coaches, they didn’t face the headwinds that Freeze walked into at Ole Miss.

And Freeze isn’t done yet. He already has 21 commitments for his 2013 recruiting class — ranked 20th by Scout.com and 22nd by Rivals.com — with a few months still remaining until signing day.

So while Ole Miss isn’t a lock to make a bowl game, with Georgia, Vanderbilt, LSU and Mississippi State still on the schedule, what Freeze has accomplished with nothing is still exceptionable. Just imagine what he can do with a couple more good recruiting classes.

•

Steve Wilson is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. You can follow him on Twitter at vpsportseditor. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, ext. 142 or at swilson@vicksburgpost.com.