Ole Miss is being cast as a villain in college football for tampering. Fresno State is the latest program to expose the Rebels to the NCAA for illegal contact with one of its players.
This new report comes less than one week after Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney put Pete Golding on blast during a very lengthy press conference.
The college football fans who are now upset with Ole Miss are choosing to turn a blind eye to reality. This is how it goes in the modern era. Tampering is part of the game. It happens everywhere, with everyone.
In fact, Lane Kiffin did the exact same thing to his former employer just a few days before Golding went after the players from Clemson and Fresno State. He did not face the same outrage. Why?
Ole Miss went after Fresno State wide receiver Josiah Freeman.
The Rebels were thrust to the forefront of the tampering conversation with their recruitment of Luke Ferrelli. The former Cal-Berkeley linebacker initially committed to Clemson out of the transfer portal.
He moved to South Carolina, allegedly signed a financial agreement with the Tigers, and joined in on team meetings and workouts. And then he went dark.
Ferrelli completely ghosted the Clemson coaching staff as he turned in his books and laptop to the school to re-enter the transfer portal. The rising redshirt sophomore linebacker committed to Ole Miss not too long thereafter. It was something that was in the works behind-the-scenes for a few weeks.
Pete Golding and the Rebels worked hard to flip Ferrelli even though he was already committed to the Tigers and enrolled in classes for the spring semester. They were successful.
Dabo Swinney put Ole Miss on blast for tampering during a lengthy press conference last week. He also reported Golding to the NCAA for tampering after Ferrelli’s agent supposedly held incriminating texts hostage with hopes that Clemson would increase its financial offer to his client. The Tigers refuse to remove him from their roster to highlight the absurdity of the transfer portal even though he is gone.
They got shoved in a locker.
And, according to John Canzano, the Rebels did not stop there! A member of the Ole Miss staff made “improper contact and tampered with Fresno State receiver Josiah Freeman.”
Bulldogs head coach Matt Entz and athletic director Garrett Klassy are choosing not to speak publicly on the matter but Freeman provided screenshots of the illegal communications to NCAA officials. A tampering investigation may or may not be underway.
Ole Miss is now the face of tampering. But here’s the thing.
Lane Kiffin and LSU did it first…
Swinney’s press conference actually helped Ole Miss more than it helped Clemson. The Rebels are clearly willing to pay whatever amount of money necessary to land top talent. The Tigers couldn’t match.
Not only that, but Golding comes out looking like a gangster.
“Pete Golding just does what he does,” Swinney said.
And, should Ole Miss somehow get in trouble with the NCAA for tampering because of Clemson and Fresno State, it would be a Level II violation. Penalties would be minor.
The Rebels are being cast as a villain and I get it. “What happened to the game I love?!” “I miss the way college football used to be.” All of that stuff.
However, this exact same thing happened to Ole Miss just a few days prior and nobody seemed to care.
Superstar defensive end Princewill Umanmielen and starting offensive lineman Devin Harper signed financial agreements to continue their college football careers at the University of Mississippi. Starting linebacker TJ Dottery was expected to do the same.
They were all going to run it back… until they didn’t.
Lane Kiffin sent “you up?” texts to all of the top players who initially chose to stay at Ole Miss, leaked certain players’ contracts to cause turmoil, and presented them with massive financial offers at the last minute. Dottery hit the portal and transferred to LSU. Harper and Umanmielen re-entered the portal and transferred to LSU even though they already signed with Ole Miss. The Tigers will pay a lucrative buyout to the Rebels for Umanmielen and Harper because they were already signed before they transferred.
Where was the outrage then? Why didn’t LSU get cast as a villain? Because Pete Golding didn’t host a whiny press conference like Swinney. He kept his head down and went to work!