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In the lead-up to National Signing Day, there isn’t a single program in college football that remains as interesting as the...wait for it... Ole Miss Rebels.

No, that’s not a typo as Hugh Freeze and his staff have already secured commitments from a number of the top high school players in the country, and are waiting to hear from a number more between and next Wednesday. It’s safe to say these are heady times in Oxford.

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And thankfully on Wednesday, I was lucky enough to have Ole Miss beat writer Hugh Kellenberger stop by to discuss it all. Hugh has been on the Ole Miss beat for several years at the Jackson Clarion-Ledger and has seen the evolution of this program first-hand. He and I discussed the following topics:

- Hugh and I discuss the evolution of this program in the transition from Houston Nutt to Hugh Freeze. Hugh Kellenberger explains why an early season loss to Texas was the first sign that things were different in Oxford. No, the Rebels didn’t win, but they played hard until the final whistle. It wasn’t they hadn’t done in the previous season under Nutt or at any other point in recent memory.

- Hugh explains what it is about Hugh Freeze’s personality that endears him so much to players, and why they play so hard for him. Hugh says that Freeze’s confidence in himself and his team has convinced the players to “buy in” into what he and his staff are teaching.

- Moving to recruiting, Hugh talks about the banner weekend the Rebels just concluded. On that weekend, top players Robert Nkemdiche (defensive end), Laremy Tunsil (offensive tackle) and Laquon Treadwell (wide receiver) were all on campus, as well as Chris Jones, a top defensive end who had previously is currently committed to the Rebels rival, Mississippi State.

- Hugh talks about the role that Treadwell and other committed players have had in “recruiting” fellow players to Ole Miss.

- Finally, Hugh wraps up by discussing what to expect on Signing Day and what might be ahead for the 2013 Rebels.

Folks if college football recruiting is your thing, then there is no more interesting program in the sport right now than Hugh Freeze’s Ole Miss Rebels. They will be a force to be reckoned with come Signing Day, so why not get ahead of the game and get caught up on what they’re doing right now?

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And finally, for those of you who don't already know, I have released an eBook! It's called "Aaron Torres Presents the Year in Sports 2012," and it is a compilations of my best articles and columns from the 2012 year. You can pick up your copy at Amazon.com or by clicking here, and it makes a great gift for the sports fan in your life!

Finally I want to thank Hugh for his time, and encourage you to follow him on Twitter @HKellenbergerCL. And of course, I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to the show.

Until next time… 

As we march our way deeper into the 2013 college basketball season, there isn’t a team that remains more interesting to casual fans than the Duke Blue Devils. Some people love them, some people hate them, but as is the case most years, no team is more interesting than Coach K’s bunch.  

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And on Tuesday, one of the leading names covering Duke, Laura Keeley of the Raleigh News and Observer stopped by to discuss all the major story lines with this team.

Laura has been with this club since the first practice in October and she and I discussed a number of different topics on the 2013 Blue Devils, starting with:

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With National Signing Day now just days away and college football fans are in a frenzy to see how their teams will finish out on the recruiting trail. Who’s hot? Who’s not? I asked all that and more to ESPN recruiting expert Tom Luginbill, who joined the Aaron Torres Sports Podcast over this past weekend.

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Nobody knows the recruiting scene quite like Luginbill does and he was incredibly gracious to share his insight with the listeners of the show.

Amongst the topics we discussed, included the following:

College hoops are in full-swing, and one team that has surprised fans across the country is the UConn Huskies. A program that is suspended from NCAA Tournament play and was left for dead just a few months ago is thriving under first year coach Kevin Ollie and while the Huskies might not be playing this March, they’ve still had an interesting season to date.

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And on Wednesday, I was lucky enough to be joined on my podcast by UConn beat writer Kevin Duffy to discuss all the major talking points around the program. Kevin is a great resource for Huskies chatter, as well as what’s going on in the Big East and college hoops as a whole.

He and I discussed the following topics:

- What’s the attitude around the program without an NCAA Tournament to play for? Kevin has been impressed by the effort that the team plays with, and the ability of head coach Kevin Ollie to get every ounce of talent out of a small and thin roster.  

Over the course of the college football season, no guest appeared more regularly on the Aaron Torres Sports Podcast than ESPN TideNation.com’s Alex Scarborough. And with Signing Day just around the corner, Alex made a return appearance on the show earlier this week to discuss all the major recruiting story lines in Tuscaloosa heading into the big day.

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As regular listeners know, nobody knows the Crimson Tide program quite like Alex does, and in this jam-packed 50-minute conversation, we discussed it all. Topics included:

- What goes into Nick Saban’s recruiting philosophy? Sure the school signs a lot of top players, but a lot more goes into evaluation than just strictly talent. Alex explains what the Crimson Tide look for in a potential prospect, including measurables and mental make-up.

- How much longer can Nick Saban keep recruiting at this pace? We know Saban loves the X’s and O’s, but how much does he really enjoy recruiting? Also, how much do his assistants take during the recruiting process?

For those who were paying close attention, you may have noticed that I spent most the last week at this year’s NFLPA Bowl. The game, which is put on by the NFL to try and get a handful of college football players noticed by pro scouts held events all of last weekend, and I was lucky enough to attend most of them.  

Unfortunately though, for those looking for information on the game itself, well, you’re going to have to go someplace else to find it. That’s not what I’m here to talk about. Not here and not now anyway. Because while most of the media was in Carson, California last week to do exactly that- to evaluate the next wave of NFL stars- that couldn’t have been further from my mind.

Instead, I was there for a completely different reason: To take in the glory that in that is Herm Edwards. That’s right, the man who once famously uttered the phrase “You play to win the game,” was in attendance last week as the coach of the National team.

And it’s safe to say that after three days around him, my life will never be the same again.

With the college football season officially done, it’s time to briefly turn our attention to college hoops (before we get back into college football recruiting next week!), where a lot has happened over the last several months. Indiana, Duke and Louisville have taken turns at No. 1, and the Pac-12 and Mountain West have emerged as college basketball power conferences, and the Big Ten has become the talk of the entire sport.

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That’s why on Thursday I decided to give my old buddy Rob Dauster of CollegeBasketballTalk.com a call to get both you and I caught up on the sport.

Rob is a wealth of college hoops knowledge and on Thursday we discussed the following subjects:

While the college football world was caught up in Manti Te’o fake-girlfriend-hysteria on Wednesday, the real story (no pun intended) in the sport came 2,000 miles in Eugene, Ore., where one of the best coaches in the game walked out the back door on an emerging dynasty. In the least surprising news of the off-season, which just so happened to come at the most surprising of times, Chip Kelly is now the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. And the strangest thing to me is that no one seems to care.

Well, ok, so “no one seems to care” is a bit of an overstatement, but in terms of great college coaches leaving the game, it barely registers as a 2.0 on the Mark Richter scale. Understand that it was just a few short years ago that we spent weeks wrestling with the idea that Jim Harbaugh would coach anywhere other than Stanford, fully expecting him to return to his alma mater at Michigan before he eventually pulled a 180 and headed off into the NFL sunset instead. Same with Pete Carroll, who had a multi-year song-and-dance with the NFL before eventually he too eventually took the plunge with Seattle in early 2010. This off-season we speculated on Bill O’Brien and Brian Kelly, Doug Marrone and for a minute, David Shaw as well.

College football season may be done, but as we all know actual football never stops. Recruiting is right around the corner, and before you know it, spring ball will be under way as well. Not to mention the NFL Draft is now creeping up on us too.

Which is why on Monday, I wanted to discuss exactly that- the NFL Draft- with my good friend Eric Galko. Eric is the Director of Scouting of OptimumScouting.com and covers the NFL Draft 365 days a year for the website. He is currently in Tampa Bay for the East-West Shrine game and took some time out of his schedule to chat about a number of very early NFL Draft topics, including Matt Barkley, another crop of elite Alabama players and who he'd take with the No. 1 pick.

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Eric and I also discussed...

- For someone who covers the NFL Draft like he does, what goes into the evaluation process? How important is character relative to the physical, on the field skills and how much can he gauge from talking to players themselves? Also, how much does Eric trust information passed on to him from agents?

Folks, before you start this article, please go ahead and grab a seat. I’ve got something to tell you and I’m not totally sure how you’re going to take it:

Ready? Ok, here goes: We... (//holding back tears//)...are about to enter our first Saturday in five months ...(//sniffling//)...without college football.

Yeah, I know, I’m hurting too. But we can work through this. I just know we can.

No, it won’t be easy. The idea that we won’t have any college football in our lives these next few months is a tough pill to swallow. There will be no more Johnny Football. No more of Les Miles’ hat or Charlie Strong’s hoodless sweatshirt. No more of Will Muschamp uncomfortably screaming at a third-string long snapper for no apparent reason. And I can’t lie, so far I haven’t taken it too well. Along with the death of my goldfish “Chip” (No, I swear, there was no particular reason I named him that), this is undoubtedly the toughest thing I’ve had to deal with so far in 2013.

At the same time, I will not let it keep me down. Yes, college football season may be over, but dammit, that doesn’t mean my life has to be! And without the sport consuming 18 hours of my day, every Saturday I’m free to live a little bit. Frankly, there are a number of things I’ve wanted to do over these past couple months that I simply haven’t had the chance to.

Well thankfully, now I do have that time, which is why late last night I decided to grab a pen and paper and make a list. A list of 50 Things I Plan on Doing Now That College Football Season is Over. I did it last year, and I will probably do it again next year too. They say the best way to overcome a traumatic event is to make a goofy list of ways you plan on passing the time (ok, so maybe nobody says that) and that’s what I plan on doing today.

Here is my list of 50 Things. And as always, you’re more than welcome to share a list of your own.