Keeping the focus on football a difficult challenge for Ole Miss

OXFORD, Miss. -- Hugh Freeze tried his best to strike a tone of optimism in a Tuesday afternoon news conference. The defiance in his voice had long since left the 47-year-old coach of Ole Miss and a somber reality seemed to have set in one week after the university received a new NCAA notice of allegations and announced a self-imposed one-year bowl ban.

Of the eight new charges brought by the NCAA, the only one Freeze seemed intent to fight vigorously was that of his own failure to monitor. It was the most damning of 21 charges dating back to 2012, and that charge is the one that’s most likely to result in punitive punishment if he can’t persuade the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions to reduce…