JACKSON — Ole Miss’ hiring of Hugh Freeze as head football coach last December is already paying dividends in June. While the Rebels entered Monday with 11 verbal pledges for the 2013 football class, gaining a commitment from Jackson Prep quarterback Ryan Buchanan was a major coup and a huge building block for Freeze and his offensive staff moving forward.
The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Buchanan donned a white Ole Miss script hat Monday afternoon at a ceremony held at his school that included media, family, friends, coaches and teammates.
Buchanan chose the Rebels over offers from Florida and Alabama, just to name a few of his suitors, because of the relationship he had with Freeze and his staff, namely newly hired quarterbacks coach Dan Werner.
“I love (Ole Miss head) Coach (Hugh) Freeze. This is his dream job and I know a lot of people know that and he takes his job seriously,” Buchanan said. “He’s a great man. I love the vision he has for the future. I love where they’re going and I want to be a part of that.”
Buchanan went on to say he made his decision to pick Ole Miss this past Thursday when he arrived a day before the start of Ole Miss football camp for invited players. Buchanan toured the athletic facilities and academic buildings in a more intimate setting and then sat down with Freeze and Werner to meet with them in a one-on-one meeting. Buchanan did the same thing at Florida with coach Will Muschamp and his offensive coordinator, Brent Pease, but in the end, Buchanan felt like staying close to home suited him better.
“I told the Ole Miss coaches I wanted to play there and I wanted to represent my school and that’s why I’m here today to officially announce it. I’m 100 percent solid on it. I’ve prayed on it for about a year now. Two weeks ago I wasn’t sure where I was going but I’m at peace about it and I’m fully confident in it and I’m not changing my decision,” Buchanan said. “There are a lot of factors that go into this, especially for a quarterback. One of the reasons I put Ole Miss in my top three was of course of the staff. From talking with this staff and comparing them to other places, this is where they want to be. They’re passionate about their job.
“My main focus was to get it out of the way this summer. That was a little bit faster than most people expected but it feels great to get it out of the way and now my teammates and I can focus on our senior season and bring a championship back to Prep,” Buchanan added. “These last two weeks have been pretty stressful. The Florida fans and the Ole Miss fans were saying I should do this and do that. It’s not on paper, but I’m solid on this.”
Prep head coach, Ricky Black, was very complementary of his signal caller’s ability and how mature he was with still so room to grow and develop.
“Ryan is one of the best players in the nation going into his senior year. Ryan is one of the best quarterbacks in the state of Mississippi and we feel like he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the nation. He is one of the most highly recruited players. We’ve had other players highly recruited, but with social media the way it is today, we haven’t had another player receive this much attention,” Black said. “He’s a very mature person. He’s a very good leader. He really spent a lot of time considering the good parts and the bad parts (of programs). I think he and his family did really an outstanding job. They had a plan, they stuck to the plan, they were focused to the plan and stayed within that plan. It looks like a very good choice.
“It’ll relax him to go ahead and play,” Black added. “He can kind of eliminate everything else, now that he’s made the decision. His choice of Ole Miss, his school of the future, he can focus on what he’s doing now. It takes a lot off of him. He can enjoy his senior season.”
Extra recruiter
With his decision out of the way, Buchanan’s job moving forward is to help Freeze and his staff recruit top-flight offensive players and additional players from the state. He already started doing that this past weekend when he was in Oxford for camp.
“That’s one of the reasons why I committed Thursday. I took that visit and I knew that’s where I wanted to play. I wanted to help recruit the players at camp and to convince them to come to Ole Miss,” Buchanan said. “I told them to try and keep it as secret as much as they could that I was going to be a Rebel.”
Buchanan will sign with the Rebels in February and be eligible to start playing in 2013. Nobody knows what the future holds for Buchanan, but he did agree that having Bo Wallace on the roster gives him the opportunity to come in and learn without having to be thrown directly into the fire as a true freshman.
“I think Bo is going to be a great player. I think he’s going to win some games at Ole Miss. I don’t know about redshirting. That’s up to Coach Freeze and his staff, but whatever is best for me and whatever is best for the team,” Buchanan said. “The offense is very flexible with what (Freeze) wants to do. If I want to change something, he’s flexible for that. He’s a great coach. That’s another reason why I picked Ole Miss.”
This past season as a junior, Buchanan passed for 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns in an offense that Black called “pro-style” that uses two backs and a balanced running game to move the ball.

 (June 5, 2012, Page 7)

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