The Day-By-Day Timeline Involving Luke Ferrelli's Clemson Departure, Alleged Tampering

The 2026 offseason was head coach Dabo Swinney’s first true go-around with the transfer portal, and it finished with some fireworks.

It saw him lose Cal linebacker Luke Ferrelli, who made an official flip to Ole Miss on Thursday. Then, he said that the Rebels tampered with the transfer.

Swinney brought receipts. He laid out every single day that the program was involved with the changes that were happening. This is what he said occurred each day, leading up to his official transfer on Thursday.

Sunday, Jan. 4

Clemson general manager Jordan Sorrells had his first conversation with Ferrelli’s agent, Ryan Williams.

Monday, Jan. 5

Ferrelli and his father are at Clemson. They went to the Swinney’s house that night. That was the first time that the two met.

“It was just to get to know each other right there at the beginning, and you know, had a good conversation,” Swinney said.

The father and son were coming from their Ole Miss visit, and Swinney asked how it was.

“And his dad said, ‘not good,’” Swinney said. “Said it was a mess. It was unorganized. It was chaos. The building was a mess. Nobody knew what was going on.”

The Clemson head coach then said that he was looking forward to having them on campus for the official visit.

Tuesday, Jan. 6

This is the day of Ferrelli’s official visit. He is joined by his father and Williams, beginning at 2:30 p.m. He was given an offer to join the program, and Swinney said that “they verbally accepted the terms of the offer.”

It’s important to note that Swinney was only looking for one linebacker in this transfer cycle. Since he believed that he had his guy, he cancelled remaining visits from other linebackers.

“We’re going to take one, so we got our linebacker,” he said. “We cancelled all the visits of all the other guys that we were going to schedule to come in throughout the rest of the week, because we’re done.”

Wednesday, Jan. 7

That afternoon, Swinney said that Ferrelli and his father left to go back to California.

Before that, however, he signed his financial aid agreement with Clemson. This essentially meant that he had everything handled to be a student come the beginning of next week.

Sunday, Jan. 11

Ferrelli officially moved to Clemson on this day. Swinney says that he has an apartment rented and he buys a car. He was also in class for that week.

He was also training with the team for that given week. Ferrelli was in team and position meetings during this time.

Wednesday, Jan. 14

Sorrells is called by Williams on Wednesday night, who speaks to him about how Ole Miss has been “coming hard” after Ferrelli.

“He said, ‘Are you talking about the same Luke that’s been enrolled, that’s enrolled at Clemson, that’s been in class, that’s moved here, that signed with Clemson?’” Swinney detailed.

Williams confirmed.

However, the agent assured Sorrels that “Luke had no intention of leaving Clemson”. He just wanted to keep the program in the know about the situation.

Thursday, Jan. 15

Sorrells tells Swinney about the conversation that following morning. Then, the Clemson head coach made a move, telling the general manager to reach out to Austin Thomas, Ole Miss’s general manager.

He wanted to give head coach Pete Golding a warning. Because all of the pieces moved from the Lane Kiffin situation, Golding was the head coach for about six weeks at that time.

“I said, ‘You reach out to the GM. I’m going to give him some grace, and you let him know that we know what’s going on, all right?’”

Swinney also told Sorrells to say that if the Rebels do not cease communication, Clemson was going to “turn him in.”

That afternoon, Sorrells reached out to Thomas over text, then over a phone call. He said the same warning twice.

“The GM assured Jordan that he had communicated to the agent that he wanted no part of this, and that his relationship with Jordan was more important to him than Luke Ferrelli.

But, that Pete Golding just ‘does what he does’, quote on quote,” Swinney said.

Around 1:30 p.m. that afternoon, Sorrells then meets with Ferrelli in his office. It was then that Ferrelli told him and linebackers coach Ben Bouleware about the text he received on Wednesday morning.

Ferrelli was in his 8 a.m. class, and he got a text message from Golding.

“And he said the text message said, ‘I know you’re signed. What’s the buyout?’” Swinney said.

The linebacker said that Golding also texted him a picture of a $1 million contract. Then, the Clemson head coach said current and former Rebel players reached out.

“Luke also mentioned to Jordan and to Ben that coach Golding had Trinidad Chambliss on the phone,” he said, “and that coach Golding was there continuing to talk on his phone to push him to reenter the transfer portal.”

“He also said that Jaxson Dart had reached out and called, but Luke, again, reassured Jordan that he had no intention of leaving,” Swinney added.

Friday, Jan. 16

This was the last day that players could announce that they are entering the transfer portal.

That morning, there was a staff meeting. Ferrelli had called Bouleware and told him that Ole Miss had reached out again. This time, they doubled his offer to come play.

“But Luke told Ben, ‘Hey, we’re good,’ and so Ben told Luke to come to the office and see Sorrells and coach Swinney and let him know everything is okay,” the Clemson head coach said.

After that meeting, Bouleware texted Sorrells to tell him that Ole Miss raised the offer to $2 million over two years.

Sorrells spoke with Williams about the situation. Williams confirmed.

“The agent confirmed that head coach Pete Golding had continued to communicate with Luke and had raised the offer,” Swinney said.

Then, when Sorrells asked Ferrelli to show the text messages that he had received, Williams “was hesitant”, saying 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 a million dollars to the already agreed-upon deal with Luke, then they would gladly give us whatever we need in order to turn Ole Miss in,” he said.

Sorrells declined.

Then, at 11:57 a.m., Williams said that the Ole Miss Assistant Director of Player Personnel, Jai Choudhary, was looking to set up a Zoom call with Ferrelli to discuss contract details.

30 minutes later, Sorrells meets Ferrelli in the football facility parking lot. The linebacker said that he was there to assure Sorrells and Swinney that he was staying.

Swinney notes that he wasn’t in the building, but got a phone call from Sorrells.

At 4:14, Sorrells approaches Swinney again. He says that he got a call from the compliance office.

Ferrelli was looking to request to re-enter the portal. Tom Allen was also informed. Ferrelli did not answer his phone after Clemson called him five minutes later.

Sorrells couldn’t get a hold of Williams, due to flying, but texted him back, “Oh bleep”, when the general manager explained the situation.

At 4:40 p.m., Sorrels and Allen drive to Ferrelli’s apartment. Swinney said that the transfer was in his driveway.

“When they got there, his immediate response was, ‘I’m going to Ole Miss,’” he said.

About an hour later, at 5:39, Sorrells spoke with Thomas, saying that Clemson was going to pursue all options to have them be accountable for tampering.

Allen and Bouleware called Ferrelli again that night, and he doubled down on his decision to reenter.

As a result, Swinney called athletic director Graham Neff and ACC Commisioner Jim Phillips to begin the next legal steps.

Wednesday, Jan. 21

Ferrelli is officially in the transfer portal, announced by multiple outlets.

Thursday, Jan. 22

Ferrelli announced his commitment to join the Ole Miss Rebels six days after he decided to leave the Tigers.

It’s a hectic story, and one that Swinney believes should have consequences and changes occur. For a player that was in a Clemson classroom for a week, how the whole situation occurred has the Clemson head coach looking for some solutions with all of these things going forward.

Clemson Tigers on SI will remain updated with the situation, and how Clemson uses its next legal steps with Ole Miss.