Clemson's Dabo Swinney shreds Ole Miss, Pete Golding for alleged tampering of Luke Ferrelli in transfer portal

No coach in college football has been more apprehensive about the transfer portal than Clemson's Dabo Swinney, and after the way the 2026 transfer portal window ended for Clemson, Swinney isn't feeling any better about the new ways of the college football world. 

After signing former Cal linebacker Luke Ferrelli early in the portal window, the Tigers saw Ole Miss swoop in and flip Ferrelli to Oxford at the last minute. That drew the ire of Swinney, who used his press conference on Friday to call out Pete Golding by name and detail Ole Miss' operation to tamper with Ferrelli after he signed, calling and texting him during classes and offering a two-year, $2 million contract to get him to leave Clemson for Ole Miss. 

Swinney, reading from a prepared statement with dates and times of various communication, laid out the timeline of events that saw Ferrelli go from committing Jan. 6 to signing on Jan. 7. Clemson has not specified whether what Ferrelli signed was a financial aid agreement or a rev-share contract, the likes of which have given more schools leverage this cycle (in the case of Demond Williams Jr. and Washington) or, for Duke and Darian Mensah, at least provide the school a grounds to claw some money back via lawsuit, if they choose to pursue that route, which can be publicly messy. 

After enrolling at Clemson on Jan. 11, Ferrelli again entered the portal on Jan. 16 to leave for Ole Miss. Ferrelli was the ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2025, leading all first-year players in solo tackles (87). 

Per Swinney, Ferrelli's agent, Ryan Williams, alerted Clemson to the fact that Ole Miss was continuing to contact Ferrelli. Swinney then had Clemson GM Jordan Sorrells reach out to Ole Miss' GM Austin Thomas to warn them that they'd turn Ole Miss in if communication didn't stop. Per Swinney, Thomas said he wasn't involved but that Golding played by his own rules. 

"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,'" Swinney said. 

After that conversation, Sorrells met with Ferrelli and learned that Golding had texted Ferrelli to ask about the buyout from his Clemson deal and offer him a $1 million contract -- and that he'd enlisted some Ole Miss stars to call Ferrelli to steer him to Oxford. 

"Sorrells met with Luke face-to-face in his office and Luke communicated to Jordan and Ben Boulware that Pete texted him on Wednesday morning -- the head coach at Ole Miss -- when he was in his 8 a.m. class," Swinney said. "And he said the text message said, 'I know you're signed. What's the buyout?' And Luke said that coach Golding also text him a picture of a $1 million contract. Luke also mentioned to Jordan and to Ben that coach Golding had Trinidad Chambliss call him from his phone and that coach Golding was there continuing to talk on his phone to push him to re-enter the transfer portal. He also said that Jaxson Dart had reached out and called him. But Luke again assured Jordan that he had no intention of leaving."

On Friday Jan. 16, Swinney says Ferrelli's agent (Williams) again reached out to Sorrells to let him know Ole Miss had upped their offer to two years, $2 million. Sorrells asked for the text messages so Clemson could have some evidence to turn in, which Williams refused unless Clemson added a second year and another $1 million to the offer, which Clemson refused. 

Williams works for the agency Athletes First and, in addition to Ferrelli and other college players, reps high-profile NFL players such as Tua Tagovailoa and Brandon Aiyuk. 

Ultimately, Ferrelli re-entered the portal and left Clemson for Ole Miss despite a late push from Sorrells and Clemson defensive coordinator Tom Allen, who tried to meet with him at his apartment. Swinney said Clemson turned everything into the NCAA regarding what they believe to be a tampering violation by Ole Miss, noting "there's tampering, and then there's blatant tampering." 

"It's total hypocrisy, because all this is going on while they on the other side are trying to fight their defensive end from going in the portal. They have accused publicly others of tampering with their roster and their players, while they are over here tampering," Swinney said. "This is just a really sad state of affairs and it's, to me, we have a broken system. If there are no consequences for tampering, then we have no rules and we have no governance. This is not about a linebacker at Clemson. I feel sorry for the young man, to be honest with you. I blame the adults. If you want to have adult world, there needs to be adult consequences." 

This is far from the first time this type of thing has happened, but rarely do coaches call out another by name for it -- largely because most of them are doing the same thing somewhere else. Swinney, as one of the longest holdouts in using the portal at all, is one of the rare ones who earnestly believes in doing things by the book, and as such he's one of the few that would even consider going this hard after another coach. 

The situation will be a fascinating test case for whether the NCAA has any teeth left in terms of its ability to enforce rules against tampering. If tampering is proven, the belief is that may amount to it a Level II infraction, i.e. a significant breach of conduct, in the NCAA's eyes. For Ole Miss that could mean penalties such as fines, recruiting restrictions and probation.