Dabo Swinney still has not heard a word from the NCAA.
It would probably be considered par for the course, seeing as the program Swinney harbors umbrage towards is one of the NCAA’s and SEC’s bell cows in Ole Miss.
Swinney opened the floodgates in January, providing irrefutable evidence that Ole Miss and head coach Pete Golding tampered with Luke Ferrelli, the star linebacker Clemson signed out of the transfer portal. Ferrelli enrolled at Clemson, attended classes and team workouts, and a week later was gone for Oxford with a multi-million dollar check in his account.
The text messages and documented communication between Golding and Ferrelli were crystal clear. The Rebels’ coach had blatantly tampered with the Tigers’ player, and Dabo Swinney rightfully turned Ole Miss in expecting the governing body of college athletics to enforce its own rules against tampering.
Instead? Crickets.
“No, I haven’t heard anything,” derisively quipped Dabo Swinney during Wednesday’s press conference. “It was true. He was in school here for a week. That did happen. I didn’t make that up.”
Dabo Swinney
When asked if he was frustrated about the entire situation, Swinney added…
“No, I’m not frustrated. I’m just trying to win a game this weekend. That’s it. I’ll let everyone else worry about that stuff.”
That might be the politically correct answer, but make no mistake, Dabo Swinney is equally as angry now as he was nine months ago. And justifiably so.
That the NCAA is dragging its heels through wet sand on the issue should not be surprising. That it is taking even longer than normal to do nothing at all, though, is the most maddening part. We all know that Ole Miss will face zero consequences. We are, after all, talking about the same NCAA who was going to allow former NFL players to return and play college ball without putting up so much as a token bit of resistence.
It would stand to reason they could care less about a player who was quite literally bought out from under Clemson by a dirty program and led by an equally unscrupulous head coach.
Golding, of course, denied complicity in tampering with Ferrelli. It does not make his actions and culpability any less glaring.
Dabo Swinney, though, also clarified on Wednesday that he has no personal issue with former Ole Miss and current LSU head coach Lane Kiffin. Swinney’s Clemson Tigers and Kiffin’s LSU Tigers meet this Saturday night in Baton Rouge in a much-anticipated season opener for both teams.
“Here’s what I would say about that and be very clear on that. Lane Kiffin had nothing to do with, I mean, zero to do with me turning in the tampering situation here at Clemson,” said Swinney. “Zero. (Kiffin) certainly reached out, and yes, I think they’ve got some back and forth, obviously, with those two schools. And obviously, I had a lot of coaches reach out, and with a lot of hearsay and stuff like that. I ain’t operating in no hearsay.”
Dabo Swinney
Whether you believe it is hearsay or not, the Ferrelli saga was some dirty dealing on the part of Ole Miss. Given that the actions, and lack of consequences, are still being talked about ahead of one of the biggest games for Clemson this season is a failure on the part of the NCAA. Add in the lack of transparency and action, and it is a double miss by the sports’ impotent governing body.
“If you tamper with my program, I’m going to turn you in,” Swinney stated. “And it’s just that simple. Lane Kiffin had nothing to do with that, zero. I was turning that in the moment he (Ferrelli) left. And again, nothing against the kid, just the system and the process of what happened. I laid that out very clear of what happened.”
Dabo Swinney
The proof is in the text message pudding. Ole Miss tampered, Clemson lost a star recruit, and the NCAA has done exactly nothing about it. That is the most frustrating part of all.
