Ole Miss football coach fakes his own funeral to motivate his players

Hugh Freeze, as you can see from this photo, is alive and well. (Bruce Newman/The Oxford Eagle via AP)

Well, this is different.

Just when you may have thought there was nothing new a coach could say to motivate players, Hugh Freeze of Ole Miss has come up with a new idea, one possibility borne of necessity.

Freeze planned his own funeral to show players how to work toward their goals before, you know, life’s clock shows 00:00 or the NCAA drops the hammer over self-reported rules violations. Either one. Freeze was definitely in a philosophical mood as he said:

“I created a funeral scene for me and showed it to all our players. And the whole purpose is understanding that whatever you believe drives your behaviors and your behaviors drive your performance and your performance will give you some result. And we need to work backwards. This is the result I really want, now are my beliefs and are my behaviors going to get me my result.

“So I created my funeral scene. And a lot of that had to do with the events of this past few weeks, it’s coming. It happens. We don’t know when it happens but we won’t cheat death. And so I wrote on the screen here at our commitment service, ‘This is the result I want at my funeral.’ This is what I want my wife to say about me. This is what I want my kids to say about me. This is what I want my players to say about me. This is what I want my parents to say about me. And really, the rest of the people are probably, no offense, but insignificant.

“But is this what they’d say about me today? And if not, I have time to make sure my beliefs that are creating my behaviors are going to get me the result I want. And it’s the same way with a team. The same way with football players. What result do you want? Now are your behaviors going to get you there?”

Allegations concerning Ole Miss include improper benefits from a member of the coaching staff as well as ACT help given to recruits from former assistants. It didn’t help that, on the first night of the NFL draft, Laremy Tunsil alluded to benefits he had received from Ole Miss.