Dabo Swinney Brought Receipts, Goes Nuclear On Ole Miss For Tampering With LB Luke Ferrelli In Heated Rant

Dabo Swinney brought receipts to his press conference on Friday afternoon against Ole Miss for tampering with linebacker Luke Ferrelli, who had already started classes at Clemson while the Rebels continued pursuing the transfer. 

We have seen coaches respond to tampering allegations, but we have never seen a coach bring receipts like Dabo Swinney did on Friday afternoon regarding the controversial situation that the NCAA is now investigating. 

"I don't want anybody to lose their job, but I want some ownership," Swinney noted. 

After committing to Clemson on January 6, and going to class for a week, Dabo Swinney laid out the timeline for which he accused Ole Miss of blatant tampering with a player who was not only enrolled, but had already started working out with the football team. 

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The entire conversation lasted over 25 minutes, where Dabo Swinney took aim at Ole Miss coach Pete Golding, along with Rebels general manager Austin Thomas. During his nuclear rant, Swinney mentioned that Ole Miss continued to reach out to Ferrelli while he was attending class, with Pete Golding sending the linebacker a photo that showed a $1 million contract. 

You can watch Dabo's response below. 

Also, as Swinney continued to discuss the tampering situation, he mentioned that the agent representing Fornelli (Ryan Williams) told Clemson that he would turn over text messages from Ole Miss staff only if Clemson upped their offer with a two-year deal. 

"What we're doing right now is flat out extortion," Swinney said.

The Clemson coach mentioned that Ferrelli had signed a deal with the Tigers on January 7th, but that Pete Golding reached out to the linebacker asking what his buyout was. 

This led to Dabo Swinney having his staff reach out to Ole Miss, making it known that if they did not stop communicating with Ferrelli, they would turn them into the NCAA. 

"This is like having an affair on your honeymoon," Swinney noted. 

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Once Ole Miss raised their offer to the $2 million range, Luke Ferrelli had told coaches at Clemson that he was still planning to stay, but ultimately ended up in the compliance office looking for the school to enter his name into the transfer portal. 

But, it was the agent of Luke Ferrelli who then tried to essentially use the text messages Dabo Swinney reference as a way to get the Tigers to match the offer from Ole Miss. 

"The agent confirmed that head coach Pete Golding had continued to communicate with Luke and had raised the offer once again," Swinney explained. "Jordan asked Luke to give us the text messages that he had received from Coach Golding, but the agent was hesitant to do that because he didn't want to burn any bridges with Ole Miss, as you never know what will happen down the road. 

"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. Which Jordan appropriately said no, we're not doing that."

The whole dilemma between Clemson and Ole Miss sent Dabo Swinney into full-nuclear mode on the current landscape of college football. 

Not only did Swinney decide he would name the opposing school tampering with his player, he laid out a complete timeline from the moment Ferrelli stepped foot on campus for his visit with the Tigers. 

I think it's fair to say that Dabo Swinney was not going to let this entire situation just get shuffled into the back room. 

According to Swinney, when Clemson staff members reached out to Ole Miss general manager Austin Thomas, his reply to the situation was that "Pete Golding just does what he does." 

You rarely see this in college athletics, having an opposing coach go into detail about another school tampering with an athlete. But, with how much those college coaches love talking about tampering, Dabo Swinney made it a point to tell others to stop their complaining if they aren't going to speak up. 

"You need to step it up and call it out. Otherwise, don't complain."

In the end, we will see which coaches decide to start speaking out on the ongoing tampering issues, though it's hard for most to throw stones from a glass house.