NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK

Ole Miss and Southern Miss deals will break in a pair of new coaches for the 2012 football season.

Ellis Johnson arrives in Hattiesburg after four seasons as the defensive coordinator at South Carolina under coach Steve Spurrier. Meanwhile, Hugh Freeze replaces Houston Nutt at Ole Miss.

Johnson and Freeze took part in a question-and-answer session with the Sun Herald to discuss their plans for the upcoming season Ole Miss begins spring drills on March 19 and Southern Miss will start on March 5 or wait until spring break ends on March 19.

Hugh Freeze

Who is Hugh Freeze?

I hope when people look at me and see a man of faith, who has principles and a strong family man. I hope they look at my style of coaching as a man who brings a tremendous passion and love for Ole Miss every single day.

What is your goal as a coach?

The goal has two sides to me. That’s to be a coach and a mentor and they go hand in hand. The first is with an emphasis of the young men we coach in a positive manner. The sup part is through winning the football games at Ole Miss.

What is your goal for the Rebels?

Our goal this year is simple. It’s to compete for 60 minutes. That is our single minded goal. After 60 minutes, we will look up at the scoreboard and see where we are. That is one expectation that should be clear to our staff, players, fans and administration. We will compete for a greater passion for our university.

Is there a timetable to turn the Rebels around?

That’s hard for me to say with some of the issues we are dealing with on campus and some of the decisions made by our kids. It will be determined by how fast these young men we have develop. We had our first team meeting on Sunday so it’s hard for me to put a pulse on how long. A lot will depend on how fast the players buy into what we are doing. I will certainly find our more when we start spring drills in March. That was the same thing when I was on Ed’s (Ogeron) staff at Ole Miss. We were able to bring in some great recruits, but that did not turn into success on the field immediately. The next staff (Nutt) had great success. I will try to bring in my own personality and do what we did with recruiting under Ed. We’ve only had three weeks, but there is no doubt we will recruit like that in years to come.

What are you looking for in recruiting?

We are optimistic that we will be able to pull a few surprises off. The thing is we hit a home run Bo Wallace (quarterback), Darone Bailey (lineman) Dehendret Collins (defensive back) in such a short time. That was good. With this class, we are looking for defensive backs and tailbacks for sure. We also have to address defensive ends, especially when you are playing in the conference. I feel like we have a good group, now we have to finish and get them singed on Wednesday.