Major College Football Head Coach Fires Back After Tampering Allegations

After being accused of tampering by one of his rivals, this college football coach went on the offensive.

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The transfer of linebacker Luke Ferrelli from Cal, very briefly to Clemson, and then to Ole Miss, never sat well with Dabo Swinney, who very publicly accused Pete Golding of dirty dealing, and now the Rebels head coach is having his say.

Swinney claimed that Golding tampered with Ferrelli, who originally pledged to Clemson on Jan. 6, only to reverse that decision and land with the Rebels on Jan. 22.

Now, Golding has responded to Swinney, offering his side of what happened.

What Pete Golding has to say

“Obviously, I think there’s two sides to every story. I’m not going to sit up here and use the podium as a grandstand and all that,” Golding said in his first spring press conference. 

“That’s why there is enforcement. That’s why we have a compliance office, that they do all that.”

A promising defender

Ferrelli was dominant in his freshman season at Cal, logging 87 stops, the most among freshmen nationally and the eighth most of any player in the ACC, earning All-Conference Defensive Rookie of the Year honors.

But after his swapping Cal for Clemson and then Ole Miss, Swinney accused Golding of “flat out tampering,” and said he would turn his SEC counterpart in to the NCAA.

But the Ole Miss coach tells another story.

How Golding tells the story

“So the bottom line, the recruitment of Luke, he came on an official visit prior to the Fiesta Bowl, and I told him, ‘I want you to be our green-dot Mike, but right now we got a green-dot Mike. And that spot’s not going to be available until we have one available,” Golding said.

“He wants to be here. I said, ‘But right now there ain’t a spot available. So if that spot becomes available, it’s yours.’ It’s a kid that wanted to be here, that we wanted to be here, that at the end of it, came open, and he’s here, and we’re happy to have him.”

Dabo disagrees

“There’s tampering, and then there’s blatant tampering,” Swinney said originally of how he saw the situation with Ferrelli and Ole Miss.

“Tampering 101 is when you’re talking to kids who aren’t in the portal. Tampering 201 is when you’ve already negotiated the deal with the kids not in the portal.

“Tampering 301 is when you’ve got a kid who’s going in the portal to sign somewhere, move there, going to classes, and you’re texting them while they’re in class. That’s like a whole ‘nother level of tampering.”

Clearly, everyone at Ole Miss sees it in a whole ‘nother way.