Florida’s coaching vacancy is now officially open after the Gators wrapped up the regular season on the road against in-state rival Florida State on Saturday. Now that Will Muschamp is now officially on the market, Florida is free to make offers to any coach it wants to take over the job. After reports surfaced Sunday night the Gators had offered the job to Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze, Florida has issued a statement denying it has extended any offers at this time.
SB Nation reported late Sunday night Florida had offered the job to Hugh Freeze. According to the report, Freeze was mulling the offer and one from Ole Miss before, with both being reported to be more than $4 million. As reported by Football Scoop this morning via Twitter, Florida says the university has “made no job offers to anyone and reports claiming that are false.”
Of course, no university or representative is ever going to come out and officially confirm a job offer has been extended. This has never been done, and it likely never will. So take the Florida statement at face value if you choose.
Freeze does make for an attractive candidate for the Florida coaching job though, and Ole Miss knows their coach is going to be a trendy name. Ole Miss has made the effort to lock up Freeze to a new contract, which the two sides previously agreed to handle at the end of the season.
On Sunday, Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports reported Colorado State head coach Jim McElwain is a a top candidate for the Florida job as well.