Clemson’s Dabo Swinney ripsMississippi for ‘blatant’ tampering with Cal transfer Ferrelli

By Chapel Fowler, The State

CLEMSON, S.C. — Last Wednesday, Clemson transfer linebacker Luke Ferrelli was sitting in an 8 a.m. class when his phone buzzed. It was Mississippi coach Pete Golding.

“I know you’re signed,” Golding allegedly texted the former Cal linebacker on Jan. 14. “What’s the buyout?”

Ferrelli had committed to the Tigers the week before, signed a financial aid agreement and verbally agreed to a revenue-sharing deal. He had a school email address, a declared major (sociology) and was participating in team workouts.

But Golding, according to Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney, reached out anyway — and texted Ferrelli a picture of an unsigned $1 million contract.

That was one of dozens of extraordinary details laid out by Swinney in an all-time news conference Friday in which he directly and publicly called out the Rebels and Golding by name for tampering with one of his best portal players and read out what he called line-by-line documentation of what happened.

Ferrelli signed with Clemson but entered the portal last-minute on the last day it was open. Swinney and Clemson athletic director Graham Neff spoke on Friday — the day after Ferrelli formally committed to Mississippi — to address the situation.

Neff said Clemson reported Mississippi to the NCAA for tampering violations. Swinney said Mississippi football general manager Austin Thomas ignored repeated warnings from Clemson GM Jordan Sorrells to cease communications with Ferrelli.

Swinney said he’s not specifically angry at Ferrelli and sees the situation as a reflection of a “broken system.” Swinney said he’s not trying to get anybody fired, but he wants Mississippi to take “ownership” of the situation.

Neff said Clemson is “exploring other potential legal options related to this tampering,” which could include pursuing monetary damages from Mississippi, but Neff declined to go into further detail and said the school’s focus is on the NCAA process. Neff said Clemson is happy to cooperate with any investigation.

“There’s tampering, and then there’s blatant tampering … and there’s texting kids while they’re in class … it’s total hypocrisy,” Swinney said on Friday.

He later added: “This situation is like having an affair on your honeymoon.”

Timeline of Luke Ferrelli transfer portal saga

Swinney on Friday gave a rare behind-the-scenes look at Ferrelli’s Clemson recruiting process and how he went from being fully committed to the Tigers to making a last-minute transfer decision and flipping to Mississippi.

Clemson did not provide any documents to media in attendance, but Swinney read directly from pages of notes and provided specific dates and timestamps. He said his goal was to provide “a little bit of clarity and a little bit of context.”

Did he ever.

Swinney said Clemson “did everything right” in recruiting Ferrelli. Clemson’s general manager, Sorrells, first connected with Ferrelli’s agent, Ryan Williams of Athletes First, on Sunday, Jan. 4, Swinney said.

Ferrelli and his father arrived in Clemson for an official visit the following evening, Jan. 5 around 9 p.m. Ironically, Swinney said, the Ferrellis had visited Oxford, Miss., earlier that day. Swinney asked Ferrelli’s dad how it went.

“And his dad said, ‘Not good,’ ” Swinney said. “He said it was a mess, it was unorganized, it was chaos, the building was a mess and nobody knew what was going on.”

After a Jan. 6 campus visit, Swinney said Ferrelli, his dad and his agent (Williams) all “verbally accepted” the terms of a Clemson offer, which likely include a revenue-sharing contract and money/salary details.

“Everybody high-fived,” Swinney said. “Everybody’s excited. We got our linebacker. We canceled visits with all the other guys. … because we’re done. We’re taking one.”

By the following Sunday, Jan. 11, Ferrelli had moved to Clemson, signed a lease for an apartment and bought a car. He was on campus, taking classes and participating in team winter workouts starting the week of Jan. 12.

Then Clemson started hearing differently, Swinney said.

Dabo details Mississippi’s tampering in notable detail

Late on Wednesday, Jan. 14, Swinney said Ferrelli’s agent (Williams) called Clemson’s general manager (Sorrells) and told him that Mississippi had been “coming hard” after Ferrelli despite Ferrelli’s commitment to Clemson.

“But he also assured Jordan Sorrells that Luke had no intention of leaving Clemson,” Swinney said of their initial conversation.

Swinney said he was shocked when Sorrells told him the news but he decided to give Golding “some grace” since he’d only been a head coach for a month after replacing Lane Kiffin, who’d left for LSU. Sorrells also had a personal relationship with Mississippi football general manager Austin Thomas, Swinney said.

“The GM (Thomas) 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 Pete Golding ‘just does what he does,’ ” Swinney said.

During an in-person meeting later on Jan. 14, Ferrelli told Sorrells and Clemson linebackers coach Ben Boulware that Golding had texted him during Ferrelli’s 8 a.m. class and had Trinidad Chambliss and Jaxson Dart (the Rebels’ last two starting quarterbacks) call Ferrelli and attempt to recruit him to Mississippi.

Ferrelli, at this point, had “no intention of leaving Clemson,” Swinney said.

The final twist came Friday, Jan. 14, when Clemson learned, through Ferrelli, that Mississippi had doubled its offer for Ferrelli to two years and $2 million.

When approached with that news by Sorrells, Williams (Ferrelli’s agent) said he’d be happy to provide text documentation of Mississippi’s tampering — if Clemson extended Ferrelli’s previous rev-sharing contract (which had been verbally agreed upon but not signed) by an additional one year and $1 million.

“To which Jordan appropriately said no,” Swinney said.

Final moments and tampering fallout

As late as 12:30 p.m. last Friday, Swinney said, Ferrelli was at the Clemson football facility reiterating his intent to stay with the Tigers. Swinney was not in the building at that point but called Ferrelli and didn’t get an answer.

At 4:14 p.m. Friday, though, Sorrells came into Swinney’s office and told his coach — who, at that point, was under the assumption that “everything was good” — that Ferrelli had emailed Clemson compliance, requesting to re-enter the portal.

Ferrelli’s agent seemed caught off guard by the news. Ferrelli would not respond to calls. By 4:40 p.m. Swinney said Sorrells and Clemson defensive coordinator Tom Allen had driven out to Ferrelli’s apartment and found him in the driveway.

“His immediate response was, ‘I’m going to Ole Miss,’ ” Swinney said of Ferrelli.

After talking with Clemson staff and asking for time to “clear his head,” Ferrelli confirmed his plans to re-enter the portal around 7:20 p.m. Friday.

Swinney had already looped in Neff, Clemson’s AD, around 4 p.m. when he got news of Ferrelli’s last-minute transfer. Swinney also called ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, and Phillips contacted SEC commissioner Greg Sankey about the situation.

Clemson complied with Ferrelli’s request, formally entering his name in the portal on Wednesday. The school had 48 business hours to enter his name in the portal after his Friday request (since Monday was a state holiday, that deadline was Wednesday).

“This is really just a sad state of affairs,” Swinney said. “We have a broken system.”

It’s unclear what punishments Mississippi might face from the NCAA if found guilty of a tampering violation. NCAA rules prevent opposing coaches making contact with athletes at other schools when they’re not explicitly in the portal.

“The NCAA, quite frankly, was surprised that a school was willing to come forward as directly and transparently as we have,” said Neff, Clemson’s athletic director. “… We’re very eager to and resolute to support them in the process.”

Swinney said he’d been overwhelmed by texts and calls from other college coaches this week talking about their own tampering situations. But he said those conversations must happen publicly, not privately, to fix tampering.

“You need to step up and call it out,” Swinney said. “Otherwise, don’t complain.”