In January, Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney took a shot at Ole Miss Rebels head coach Pete Golding regarding an alleged tampering. According to Swinney, Golding tampered with Cal transfer linebacker Luke Ferrelli, who signed a rev-share contract with Clemson, even moved there, but later unenrolled there to sign with Ole Miss.
Swinney called it a “blatant” and “straightforward” case of tampering. After all, Ferrelli had already started attending classes, started offseason workouts, rented an apartment, and bought a car before Ole Miss came into the picture. Swinney’s Clemson also filed a formal complaint with the NCAA on Jan. 16.
On Wednesday, during the SEC spring meetings, Golding pushed back on the scrutiny Ole Miss is facing amid the NCAA investigation. Golding was against selective enforcement in tampering cases.
“We’re talking about tampering, you don’t think coaches get tampered with?” Golding said. “We’re talking about the new Kiffin rule and all this shit, but who do you think is meeting with these [coaches] and offering them a job? Where we’re at in college football is not a really good place right now. A lot of things make headlines and there’s a lot more people involved that everybody might not know at this point.
“… Some things you feel shouldn’t matter that they’re making a big deal about, but I think it’s about the enforcement of it, and that’s what everybody wants. What are the rules and is everybody going to be held accountable to the same standard? Up to this point, that hasn’t been the case.”
In order to better explain, Golding took the example of T.J. Dottery. The former Ole Miss linebacker transferred to LSU to follow Lane Kiffin.
“Not comparing [Ferrelli] to a guy who’s been a starter somewhere that wasn’t in the portal that’s at a new school now after going to a semifinal — like what are we doing?” Golding added. “That’s the piece where everybody’s at. There’s an enforcement of [Ferrelli], who just took an, but there’s not an enforcement of [Dottery], who was here for three years, and he’s been tampered with the entire time? What are we doing?”
As per Golding’s account, the Rebels met Ferreli before he committed to Clemson, but due to roster circumstances, they could not onboard him right away.
Ole Miss HC Pete Golding Could Care Less About What Others Think
After accusations were leveled by Dabo Swinney against Pete Golding of engaging in tampering, the reputation of the Ole Miss head coach was called into question.
This comes at a time when he was entrusted to continue as head coach after winning two games in the playoffs. Lane Kiffin, who led the Rebels in the regular season, took a job at LSU, requiring the Rebels to promote Golding for the playoffs. He impressed enough to make the job his own.
During the spring meetings, Golding shared that he doesn’t care about the unwarranted accusations. He also mentions that his players must learn to block the outside noise.
“I couldn’t care less what everybody else thinks of us,” Golding said. “I think our players understand, there’s a bull’s eye and a circle on them now based on their success and what they’ve done on the field. They’ve got to be able to block out the noise.”
It remains to be seen if Golding faces any penalties following an impending NCAA investigation.
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