Dabo Swinney threatens Ole Miss coaches with tampering allegations

Swinney said Ferrelli informed Clemson of the contact, and that Clemson GM Jordan Sorrells reached out to Ole Miss counterpart Austin Thomas threatening to turn Ole Miss in if the contact did not stop. While Thomas apparently was willing to do so, Swinney alleged that Golding kept it up anyway.

Swinney offered up a whole accounting of the situation. He claimed that Golding had both Trinidad Chambliss and Jaxson Dart reach out to Ferrelli about a transfer, and compared the situation to “having an affair on your honeymoon.”

Tampering fears and complaints are not necessarily uncommon in the current era of college football, but it is certainly unusual for one coach to call out a counterpart by name. Swinney obviously wants something to be done about Golding and is willing to air his complaints publicly as well as privately.

As Swinney noted, there is some irony in Ole Miss facing these accusations, as they were very worried about former coach Lane Kiffin tampering with their players during the College Football Playoff. It is widely acknowledged that these things happen, but actually proving it and getting offenders punished is very difficult.

Swinney has long been opposed to using the transfer portal heavily, though he has started to compromise on that recently. This is a big reason why he hates it.