OXFORD - Ole Miss assistant football coach Gunter Brewer visited recruits in schools Monday, asking them to stick with the Rebels and hoping the Rebels will stick with him.

Brewer was wide receivers coach at Oklahoma State before joining the Ole Miss staff in January for what proved to be the Rebels' final season under Houston Nutt, whose four-year run at Ole Miss ended Saturday night with a 31-3 loss to rival Mississippi State.

Brewer is the head of the transitional team. He, three junior-level football staff members and a former player moving into the loop from a different university position are tasked with keeping recruits who have verbally committed and attracting others who have not.

"You tell them that there is change, and they'll know who probably by mid-December. You tell them they have a chance to play in the best conference in the world, the best division in the world, and there are lots of opportunities for kids to come in and play early," Brewer said. "It's a great university, and that's a selling point. They'll have new leadership and the chance to play for the same guy for the whole stretch of time they're here."

Assisting Brewer are Corinth native Bryan Brown, a former Ole Miss player who served as a defensive graduate assistant on this year's staff, Justin Crouse, the coordinator of recruiting development, and Luke Paschal, an intern.

Also assisting is former player Ronnie Heard, an employee of the UMAA Foundation, the school's fund-raising body for athletics.

All four have been approved by the SEC and the NCAA to assist Brewer and represent the school in recruiting.

Their work in recruiting is more about public relations, not breaking down video and analyzing high school prospects to fill needs.

Brewer say recruits ask him if Ole Miss can win.

"The obvious answer is yes. Two short years ago there were two nine-win seasons. They beat LSU and Florida in a year where they won the national championship," he said. "It can be done. It has been done, so there's some tradition to recruit to. Some of the other guys in our division and in the other division have not had as much success in the last five to 10 years."

With family in the area, Brewer gambled on success when he left a high-powered offense in Stillwater, Okla., to return to the school where his father was head coach in the 80s. His continued employment will be determined by the next coach.

"If an assistant coach has asked us to make sure the new head coach knows that they would like to stay, we will do that. We will inform the new head coach. If the head coach asks us about assistants we will certainly inform him of what we know," athletics director Pete Boone said.

Coach search update

This should be a big week in determining the next head coach.

Interviews are believed to be on-going, though that has not been confirmed.

The candidates most often mentioned include Arkansas State coach Hugh Freeze, Louisiana-Lafayette coach Mark Hudspeth, Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora and Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart.

Other names have surfaced as well.

Freeze has strong Ole Miss ties. He was considered a bright offensive mind and an up-and-coming coach when he served three seasons as an assistant to former coach Ed Orgeron.

Hudspeth is a Louisville native with deep ties to Mississippi and the region, having coached as an assistant at Delta State and Mississippi State and served as head coach at North Alabama where he was 74-24 in seven seasons.

Freeze's Red Wolves defeated Hudspeth's Cajuns head-to-head earlier this season, allowing Arkansas State to clinch the Sun Belt championship. The Red Wolves can cap an unbeaten conference season by defeating Troy Saturday afternoon. Both Arkansas State and La.-Lafayette are in bowl games.

Freeze's name has been mentioned in connection with other jobs as well, most notably Memphis but also with Illinois, which came open when Ron Zook was fired on Sunday.

For Ole Miss, there may still be interest in former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, though apparently less interest in Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, whose unit ran the ball effectively but struggled to pass and score points in a 7-5 regular season.

It's possible an announcement could come later this week or next, but co-committee chair Archie Manning has promised a quiet search and has delivered.

"Certainly we are supporting Mike Glenn and Archie in this search process. It's really business as usual," Boone said.

parrish.alford@journalinc.com