Dabo Swinney came to his Friday news conference with receipts. He rifled through them while accusing Ole Miss and its new head coach, Pete Golding, of tampering.
The serious allegations Swinney leveled arrive in the wake of former Cal linebacker Luke Ferrelli committing to and signing with the Tigers out of the transfer portal before re-entering the portal and joining the Rebels.
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While Swinney blamed “the adults” and said he feels sorry for Ferrelli, he compared the whole situation to “having an affair on your honeymoon.” Swinney explained that Ferrelli had already moved to Clemson, bought a car, rented an apartment and attended class for a week.
Actually, Swinney said that Golding texted Ferrelli during his 8 a.m. class, asking what the linebacker’s buyout was at Clemson. Swinney also said that Ole Miss ultimately offered Ferrelli a two-year, $2 million contract.
The longtime Clemson head coach went detail-by-detail after re-introducing offensive coordinator Chad Morris, who is back with the program and looking to spark the Tigers’ offense like he did when he served as the team’s OC from 2011-14. Swinney dove into an 11-some-minute breakdown of the Ferrelli situation, exposing Ole Miss and Golding following their remarkable run to the College Football Playoff semifinals.
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Afterward, he made something abundantly clear:
“I want to challenge all of those coaches that have reached out to me [about other instances of tampering]. I want to challenge all of ’em. You need to step up and call it out. Otherwise don’t complain.
“You either step up and you be an example to young coaches in this profession and be people of integrity or just shut your mouth and don’t complain again. That’s what I would say to all the coaches out there because I know this has happened, and we’re never going to get this under control until we start having some consequences.”
This story is being updated.