Kentucky's Will Stein Backs Dabo Swinney's Tampering Stance: 'Don't Text A Kid. Is It That Hard?"

Will Stein hit the ground running in Lexington, looking to push the Kentucky Wildcats into the national college football conversation. A strong transfer portal class should help immensely. But in today’s era of college athletics, recently put under the microscope by Clemson's Dabo Swinney, following the rules can save coaches a lot of unnecessary headaches.

If you didn't see the press conference last week when Dabo Swinney provided a detailed timeline on Ole Miss' alleged tampering with linebacker Luke Ferrelli, you certainly missed a lot. 

Essentially, Swinney laid out what he thought was blatant tampering by the Rebels in their pursuit of a player who had already started classes at Clemson, along with workouts. 

The gist of it centered around Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding allegedly sending messages to Ferrelli while he was in class, with a picture of a $1 million contract in hopes of him leaving the Tigers for Oxford. 

It worked out, after Ole Miss bumped the offer up to $2 million, with Ferrelli now enrolled with the Rebels, and Clemson turning over evidence of what they believe to be tampering with an athlete that we still don't know if signed an actual NIL-Rev Share agreement. 

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Joining OutKick's Hot Mic on Monday, Kentucky's Will Stein was asked about how coaches have to operate within the grey area of recruiting, mostly because the rules are changing on what is essentially a weekly basis. 

"It's crazy right? And, there's a lot of grey (areas), mostly grey," Will Stein noted. "You have to do the best job as a coach of operating within the confines of the rules, you have to. The rules get skewed, they change almost weekly, daily sometimes, yearly. How do you keep up with this? You have to have really smart people around you, and you have to do the right thing. 

"Do what you're supposed to do, when you're supposed to do it, and you're gonna be fine. It's hard, guys are shopping pre-portal. They are, it's not just coaches. Agents are shopping their players before the season. So, how do you deal with that as a person at another program when you receive calls from agents, and they give you an entire list of players who are looking to get into the portal?"

Will Stein: "It's Not That Hard" To Follow The Simple Rules

Unfortunately, this is what collegiate sports have turned into over the years, where playing for a different school on a yearly basis feels like the ‘college way’ now. Chasing the contracts and monetary figures that come with free agency has turned college athletics into professional leagues. 

But, when it comes to actually abiding by rules that are in place, the same ones that coaches agree to behind closed doors or within their own fraternity, these guys know the difference between right and wrong. 

And, since Dabo Swinney was the first premier coach to go on the record about the ongoing issues plaguing college athletics right now, it makes it easier for other coaches to speak their mind about this current era. 

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In the case of Ole Miss coach Pete Golding being accused of texting Luke Ferrelli, Will Stein just laid out the truth regarding what coaches just aren't allowed to, or shouldn't do, in these cases. 

"You can't text or call guys, you can't do that. So don't do it. You know, it's not that hard," Will Stein mentioned. "I don't understand why it can be so difficult for coaches, and that's the rule. That's what Dabo (Swinney) said. If that's the rule, follow the rule. And, if there are no rules… Everybody is bending it like that. Until they establish a clear, concise rule and get the calendar fixed where people don't have to do this, it's gonna happen. Play within the rules. 

"There's like an agreement, like the hidden rules of baseball, you know what to do and what not to do. Just follow the agreements. That's not bending, you're still playing by the rules. But, don't text a kid. Is it that hard? I don't get that, it's not hard."

Kentucky's Will Stein Backs Dabo Swinney's Tampering Stance : 'Don't Text A Kid. Is It That Hard?" Via: Kentucky Athletics

Multiple Agents, Same Player: It's Getting Out Of Control

Yea, this seems to be happening more on a yearly basis in college sports. 

Now that there are some of the biggest sports agencies in the world representing high school and college athletes, things can also get a bit tricky on the portal trail over who is actually trying to shop for athletes. 

Unfortunately, some athletes don't understand the magnitude of this business. So, if agents are trying to get the upper hand in signing new clients, or finding the best deals, pretty much anything goes. 

"Yes. Well, I go to our players and ask ‘which one is your guy?’. A lot of times it was all three at the same time." Stein jokingly recalled. "I'm like, ‘What? Like what are you doing?'. You put these kids in these predicaments where they are being lured either way. They don't know how to say no, because a lot of them are really nice, sweet kids that wanna do right by people and they don't have the family or structure to help them in the right direction."

As you can tell, college athletics are currently treading in some rough waters, and most of those coaches are just going with the flow on a weekly basis. 

Welcome to the new era.