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Memphian fears inclusion in NCAA document as three-year probe continues

Ole Miss continues to investigate Walter Hughes' relationship with DL Herbert Moore and former teammate Bobby Billingsley.
Ole Miss continues to investigate Walter Hughes' relationship with DL Herbert Moore and former teammate Bobby Billingsley. (Getty )

Walter Hughes made the trip to Oxford on National Signing Day 2013 to celebrate the Rebels’ heralded signing class.

By that afternoon, however, Hughes was being questioned by Ole Miss administrators about possible NCAA violations.

Three years later, Hughes has been temporarily disassociated from Ole Miss and is worried he's named in a notice of allegations the university recently received.

Hughes, 57, said Wednesday he's been interviewed by Ole Miss senior athletics director for compliance Matt Ball, general counsel Lee Tyner and outside counsel William King of the Birmingham-based firm Lightfoot, Franklin and White.

Hughes said he expects to meet with Ole Miss’ legal representation sometime in the next couple of weeks to discuss allegations that he provided improper benefits for former Memphis East High School football players Herbert Moore and Bobby Billingsley.

"As you might expect, out of fairness to everyone involved during this 90-day response time, I can’t get into specifics about names of people and details,” Ole Miss athletics director Ross Bjork said. “(I) wish I could but in due time we will be able to release the NOA and our response.”

According to the Associated Press, Ole Miss has been hit by the NCAA with 28 allegations in three sports, including 13 allegations in football. Nine of the 13 allegations, including the ones apparently involving Hughes, allegedly occurred in the four years since Hugh Freeze replaced Houston Nutt in Oxford.

Sources told ESPN.com on Tuesday that four of the 13 allegations revolve around David Saunders, who was an assistant coach under Houston Nutt. Five of the allegations, according to ESPN.com, involve Laremy Tunsil's situation that caused a seven-game suspension during the 2015 season.

Hughes, who owns a Memphis-based landscape business, attended Ole Miss his junior and senior years but left school a few hours short of graduation. He said he has been an Ole Miss baseball season ticket holder but has never donated to the university’s athletics program.

In 2012, Hughes said, he checked with Ole Miss’ compliance office before bringing Moore, a defensive lineman, and Billingsley, a lightly recruited offensive lineman, to Oxford. Hughes, who has served as a mentor for urban Memphis youth for the past 10 years, said he had known both East High School football players since they began their freshman years.

Through a Memphis-area Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter, Hughes has participated with programs that encourage team-building exercises. During football season, he said, he is part of a small group that feeds East players a pregame meal.

“Over the years, some of these guys have become like a son to Marilyn (his wife) and I,” Hughes said “Often we host a group of current or past East High School guys for a cookout or watch a game, letting them know we are always there for them. We were not too keen one night when two rang our doorbell at 1:30 a.m., yet we found out something had happened at their home and they needed a room for the night.”

It was that spirit, Hughes said, that led to him serving as a mentor to Moore and Billingsley. Moore originally committed to Arkansas State but flipped to Ole Miss when Freeze left Jonesboro for Oxford in late November 2012.

“When he committed to Arkansas State, I was thrilled to death,” Hughes said. “I didn’t know he had committed to Ole Miss until it came out in the local paper.”

Billingsley was never offered a scholarship by Ole Miss. However, he was dead set on walking on in Oxford and eventually earning a scholarship.

“I said, ‘Bobby, you need to set your goals lower,’” Hughes said. “We tried our best to talk him out of it."

Hughes provided transportation from Memphis to Oxford and back for Moore and Billingsley on more than one occasion. In early January, Hughes drove both players _ still prospective student-athletes at the time _ to Birmingham to see the Rebels face Pittsburgh in the BBVA Compass Bowl.

Hughes and his wife shared one room at a Birmingham Hampton Inn. He provided another room for Moore and Billingsley to share. Hughes also provided a meal for the players at a Bob Baumhower’s Wings location in Birmingham. Hughes said Moore eventually repaid approximately $300 and served a suspension for accepting what the NCAA deemed to be an improper benefit.

Hughes contends he wasn’t doing anything improper. Instead, he said the fact both players were being recruited by Ole Miss was immaterial.

“I told them, ‘You should go anywhere that offers you a free education. Take it. I’ll come see you play anywhere you go,’” Hughes said. “I told (King), ‘I do this for lots of other kids. I drove kids to Arkansas, Arkansas State and North Alabama.

“I’m more pissed off than I am concerned. I am just trying to help people. I know what it looks like but you have to read between the lines. We’re trying to help these kids grow up.”

"I don't play football anymore but Walter was just a good Christian guy/mentor who just so happened to be a fan of Ole Miss helping kids in need," Billingsley said Wednesday night when contacted by RebelGrove.com. "He just wanted us to be successful and go to school even if it wasn't at Ole Miss. He was around before Ole Miss spoke to any of us."

NCAA rules state that a pre-existing relationship initiated prior to the student-athlete becoming a prospect allows for gifts and benefits provided to the student-athlete that are not related to the prospect’s recruitment, provided the benefits would have been provided regardless of the interest of Ole Miss in recruiting the prospect and provided it can be demonstrated that benefits provided were consistent with those provided prior to the student-athlete becoming a prospect.

“I don’t care where these guys go,” Hughes said. “I couldn’t care less. I know in my heart I was just trying to help kids.

“I’m still going to help kids. I just won’t bring them to Ole Miss. “

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