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Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney called out Ole Miss for tampering with transfer linebacker Luke Ferrelli this past offseason. It’s forced the NCAA to launch an investigation into potential wrongdoing.
Swinney provided receipts to the association in hopes of tempering the tampering epidemic that’s overtaken college football. Rebels coach Pete Golding has threatened to turn over his own receipts if found guilty.
Few teams were hit harder in the transfer portal than Ole Miss this past season. Despite making a run in the College Football Playoff, the team saw 23 players leave campus.
Many were notable contributors. Some landed elsewhere in the SEC. Golding suggests some shadiness took place behind the scenes.
Pete Golding threatens to expose the SEC.
Ole Miss coach Pete Golding, at the center of a high-profile NCAA investigation into alleged tampering, has informed the NCAA he will expose rampant tampering in the sport if sanctioned, a person close to the situation told USA TODAY Sports.
“I think a lot of things make headlines,” Golding said of tampering while speaking at the SEC spring meetings. “There’s a lot more people involved that everybody might not know.
“I’m not gonna sit up here and say whatever we did or we didn’t do, was it right or was it wrong? But, you know, when you go through what we went through (with tampering), and what you’re seeing day-in and day-out, some things you feel like shouldn’t matter that, you know, they’re making a big deal about.“
Golding has not completed a full season in Oxford as head coach, yet he finds himself at the center of an NCAA investigation. Then again, nothing about this past season was ordinary for Ole Miss.
Lane Kiffin led the Rebels to the playoff before being offered and accepting the LSU job. He was barred from coaching the team in the postseason.
Ole Miss fell a game shy of the national championship with Golding at the helm. At season’s end, nearly two dozen players left the program.
Ten of those players landed at other schools in the SEC.
Ole Miss has receipts.
LSU, unsurprisingly, was the top landing spot for former Rebels. The Tigers swiped four Ole Miss contributors, including TJ Dottery whom Golding suggests was tampered with.
“Not comparing [Ferrelli] to a guy who’s been a [multiyear] starter somewhere that wasn’t in the portal that’s at a new school now after going to a semifinal — like, what are we doing?
That’s the piece where everybody’s at. There’s an enforcement of [Ferrelli], who just took an [official visit to Ole Miss], but there’s not an enforcement of [Dottery] who’s… been here for three years, and he’s been tampered with the entire time? What are we doing?”
Golding specifically referenced Luke Ferrelli in his tampering response. Both players are linebackers, interestingly enough with each having ties to Ole Miss and Clemson. One is under investigation. The other is not.
Dottery started his career with the Tigers but was dismissed. He landed at Ole Miss before following Kiffin to Baton Rouge.
Ferrelli played at Cal before entering the transfer portal this past offseason. His recruitment was a whirlwind.
The defender signed and enrolled at Clemson in January. He was taking classes at the university while still in contact with Ole Miss.
Ferrelli, according to the Tigers, later ghosted the staff and began negotiations with the Rebels. After a failed attempt to leverage the situation into a salary bump, the linebacker bolted to Oxford.
Dabo Swinney named names after the fact, Pete Golding included. It’s triggered the NCAA investigation.
Golding has now threatened to do the same if sanctioned. That might make the likes of Alabama, Auburn, LSU, and Missouri nervous as they all nabbed former Rebels in the transfer portal.
There are likely a few other incriminating conversations from suitors that failed to secure commitments from Ole Miss players.
Golding is not afraid to expose SEC cheaters if found guilty of his crimes. If it happens, Dabo Swinney may be to thank for the fallout.