Clemson Tigers Finally See Movement in Ole Miss Tampering Case Involving Luke Ferrelli

Almost exactly four months after Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney put the college football world on blast, it was revealed that he finally saw positive takeaways from it.

ESPN revealed that the NCAA has opened an investigation on the day that Swinney called out Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding regarding the tampering of linebacker Luke Ferrelli. Information was received by writers David Hale and Mark Schlabach through an open-records request.

On Jan. 23, the Clemson head coach said that while enrolled as a student on campus, the former Tiger was illegally contacted by Golding in an illegal manner, who asked Ferrelli how much money he wanted to jump ship to transfer to the Rebels.

The NCAA sent the program an email requesting that Golding’s phone, which was issued by Ole Miss, to be looked at, as well as his personal phone. Other members of his staff who were close to the situation, which included general manager Austin Thomas and director of player personnel, Jai Choudhary, among others, also had to have their phones looked at.

Those two played roles in communicating with Swinney throughout the saga while Clemson was monitoring the situation the week before the press conference.

It’s important to note that Ferrelli’s phone was also imaged, according to Hale and Schlabach.

On Jan. 15, Thomas told Swinney that Golding “does what he does” after the Tigers’ head coach threatened to report the program to the NCAA on an act of tampering. Clemson’s general manager, Jordan Sorrells, also reached out to Ferrelli’s agent, Ryan Williams, sending him a warning about the situation.

As the story goes, the following day, while being a Clemson student, having an apartment and car in the area, Ferrelli left, telling defensive coordinator Tom Allen and linebackers coach Ben Bouleware that he was going to Ole Miss when they went to his house to confront him about the situation.

Later that day, Swinney was in contact with athletic director Graham Neff and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips to discuss the next legal steps.

ESPN revealed that the case is still in the early steps of the process, and neither school wanted to comment about the situation finally being revealed to the public.

Coming from Cal, Ferrelli was the ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year, verbally committing to the Tigers on his visit on Jan. 6. Swinney said that he only wanted one linebacker in the class, meaning he cancelled the rest of his visits, and that would end up backfiring.

However, Allen says that the linebacker room is in great shape, with junior Sammy Brown leading the room in what will look to be an All-American caliber season with the Tigers. Kobe McCloud is expected to take the starting role that Ferrelli was expected to have, while names like Jeremiah Alexander and C.J. Kubah-Taylor should be rotational pieces in the room.

Clemson Tigers on SI will continue to remain updated about the situation, and it is unknown how long the process of the investigation will take.

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