OXFORD, Miss. – One day after Pete Golding and the Ole Miss staff received the commitment of former Clemson signee Luke Ferrelli, Dabo Swinney and Clemson athletic director Graham Neff scheduled a press conference, which took place Friday afternoon, to address the situation and accuse the Rebels of tampering.
Swinney, who has landed a total of 15 players in the portal since 2020, didn’t waste any time on the microphone, taking shots at Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding, along with Rebels’ General Manager Austin Thomas. He began, noting that Ferrelli had signed with Clemson on January 7th and had begun taking classes on campus.
According to Swinney, over the next 10 days, Ole Miss representatives began contacting Ferrelli which resulted in the linebacker changing his mind and re-entering the transfer portal before then committing to Ole Miss.
After hearing about these actions, Swinney told the assembled media that Clemson pushed back and got in communication with Thomas. Following their brief conversation, Swinney reports that Thomas allegedly told the Clemson staff that his relationship with Clemson GM Jordan Sorrells was, in effect, worth more to him than signing the linebacker but that, “Pete Golding just does what he does…”
“We have a broken system…if there are no consequences for tampering, we have no rules and no governance.”
Despite suggesting that Thomas and the Rebel staff terminate their recruiting efforts, Swinney said on January 14th, two days before the conclusion of the transfer portal, Golding contacted Ferrelli in class.
“When he was in his 8 am class, he got sent a text message that said, ‘I know you’re signed, what’s the buyout?’ Luke said Golding also texted him a picture of a one million dollar contract.“
– Swinney on Golding’s text to Ferrelli
Throughout this time period, Dabo also suggested that both current Ole Miss QB Trindad Chambliss and former signal caller Jaxson Dart called Ferrelli, pushing him to re-enter the transfer portal. On the final day of the portal, Swinney said that Ole Miss reached back out and doubled its original offer, extending a 2-year, 2-million-dollar contract to the former ACC freshman defensive player of the year.
“The agent confirmed that head coach Pete Golding had continued to communicate with Luke and had raised the offer once again. Jordan (Sorrells) asked Luke to give us the text messages that he had received from Coach Golding, but his agent was hesitant to do that as he didn’t want to burn any bridges with Ole Miss… However, the agent communicated that if we were to add a second year at one million dollars to the already agreed-upon deal, then they would gladly give us whatever we needed to turn Ole Miss in.”
– Swinney on the details surrounding Ferrelli’s exit
The next day, around 4:14 pm, Dabo stated he received a call from Sorrells, informing him that Ferrelli had gone to the Clemson compliance office and requested to enter the transfer portal again. Dabo retaliated not only with Friday’s press conference but also by calling ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, who relayed the information to SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey.
It’s official. Luke Ferrelli has committed to Ole Miss.
“I stay in my lane most of the time. … But I am not going to let someone just flat out tamper with my program. If you tamper with my players, I’m going to turn you in.“
– Swinney on the situation
While Swinney decided to voice his opinion, and we have no way of knowing what actually occurred until and unless Ole Miss issues its own statement, it’s worth noting that this kind of situation takes place frequently in the transfer portal world. In fact, recently Rebel fans will recall something similar occuring with Ole Miss with offensive lineman Devin Harper and EDGE Princewill Umanmielen, who signed revenue sharing contracts with the Rebels before then being contacted by LSU. Ultimately, the players entered the portal and transferred to LSU.
It’s important to keep in mind that only one side of the situation has been aired. There’s no doubt Ole Miss likely has its own version of the events. Be sure to stay tuned with The Rebel Walk for all of your Ole Miss sports info. We’ll stay on top of it for you!
Zach is a sophomore at Ole Miss and a Digital Content Creator with The Rebel Walk. Outside of covering sports, he enjoys spending time with family and hanging out with friends. Zach plans on graduating from Ole Miss in 2027 with a Sports Administration degree.
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