Dabo Swinney and Clemson don’t want to be caught up in the LSU-Ole Miss beef. Period. But if anybody messes with his program, that is when the head coach will act.
Watch What’s Trending Now! “They can run their program however they wanna run their program,” Kiffin said at a presser, via The State’s Chapel Fowler. “They can do whatever they wanna do. I ain’t into none of that. I got one issue: if you tamper with my program, I’m going to turn you in. And it’s just that simple. “Lane Kiffin had nothing to do with that, zero. I was turning that in the moment [Luke Ferelli] left. And again, nothing against the kid, just the system and the process of what happened. And I laid that out very clear at what happened.”
The Ferelli chapter dominoed into one of the most pressing situations for the NCAA earlier in the year. The LB transferred to Clemson from Cal and was already enrolled, attending classes and participating in football activities. Then, about a week later, he entered the transfer portal again and landed at Ole Miss. That was after Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU.
Back then, Dabo Swinney went public with accusations that the Rebels had tampered with the player. Clemson subsequently reported the matter to the NCAA.
According to Swinney, Ferelli was approached by Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding through text and was offered a $1 million NIL package at Ole Miss. The NCAA opened an investigation into Clemson’s complaint on Jan. 22, the same day Dabo Swinney held a fiery news conference detailing what he believed happened.
The investigation is still ongoing. Then came Wednesday’s fresh twist. CBS Sports published an excerpt from John Talty’s upcoming book, Lane Being Lane: The Story of Lane Kiffin, College Football’s Agent of Chaos.
Talty reported, citing multiple sources, that Lane Kiffin “egged Swinney on” and provided information that helped Clemson pursue its complaint against Ole Miss. It became a story because of how the Rebels fans felt after he left for LSU before their playoff run.
Dabo Swinney did acknowledge that Lane Kiffin contacted him after Luke Ferrelli left Clemson.
But that, according to Swinney, was where the connection ended. “I had a lot of coaches reach out,” he said. “And with a lot of hearsay and stuff like that, I ain’t operating in no hearsay.”
Swinney said in January that Ferrelli’s agent, Ryan Williams, reached out to general manager Jordan Sorrells to alert him that “Ole Miss was going hard” after the linebacker, who was the ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year last season. Sorrells then contacted Ole Miss General Manager Austin Thomas and requested that the program end its pursuit of Ferrelli. However, according to the Clemson head coach, despite Thomas assuring Sorrells that he did not support tampering, Golding “does what he does.”
At the SEC Media Days, he doubled down on his stance.
“It’s our responsibility to recruit really good players, coach them extremely hard, get them ready to win football games, so we’re going continue to recruit really good players in the high school market and the portal market and continue to do it how we’ve done it.”
For now, there is no update on the NCAA’s investigation into the matter, but they have requested to forensically image the phones of Ole Miss’ staff, including Golding, and that of Ferrelli’s. Dabo Swinney is adamant nobody had to convince him to report what happened. He saw a player leave after barely settling in at Clemson. If he believes another program crossed the line, he says he’ll make the call.
Wouldn’t any coach do the same?
