Dabo Swinney says Lane Kiffin had 'zero' to do with Clemson reporting Ole Miss for tampering over a linebacker's transfer
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Dabo Swinney says that Lane Kiffin had nothing to do with his formal accusations of tampering against Ole Miss.
In a book excerpt published Wednesday by CBS Sports, author John Talty wrote that Kiffin “passed along information, according to multiple sources, to help Swinney in his crusade against [Ole Miss coach Pete Golding] and Ole Miss” and that he “egged Swinney on to go public against the Rebels” over the team’s recruitment of linebacker Luke Ferrelli.
Ferrelli played the 2025 season at Cal and transferred to Clemson. After Ferrelli signed with Clemson, Swinney said that Golding, who succeeded Kiffin as the Rebels’ head coach, texted the linebacker and asked him what his buyout was. Ferrelli switched to Ole Miss, and Swinney went public with the tampering allegations in a January news conference.
Hours before Swinney’s news conference this winter, the NCAA had been in communication with Ole Miss about the allegations.
Wednesday night, Swinney said in a teleconference that Kiffin had nothing to do with Clemson submitting a report of tampering by Ole Miss to the NCAA, though he did say that Kiffin had been in contact about the situation.
“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,” Swinney said. “Zero. Lane, after the kid left and all that, he certainly reached out. I think they’ve got some back and forth, obviously, with those two schools and honestly, I had a lot of coaches reach out with a lot of hearsay and stuff like that.
“I ain’t operating in no hearsay. I don’t care what anybody says. I don’t care how anybody runs their program. They can run their program however they want to run their program. They can do whatever they want to do. I ain’t into none of that. I got one issue. If you tamper with my program, I’m going to turn you in and it’s just that simple. Lane Kiffin had nothing to do with that. Zero.”
Kiffin had been in charge at LSU for over a month by the time that Ferrelli switched his commitment. After coaching the 2025 regular season at Ole Miss, Kiffin was hired by LSU and attempted to stay on as the Rebels’ coach for the College Football Playoff. After Ole Miss refused to let Kiffin stay, the school promoted Golding from defensive coordinator to be the team’s next head coach.
Talty’s book “Lane Being Lane: the Story of Lane Kiffin, College Football’s Agent of Chaos” is set to be released later this month. Another excerpt from the book published Wednesday by Vanity Fair detailed Kiffin’s personal life while he was Alabama’s offensive coordinator under Nick Saban.
The excerpts were also released a day after Swinney said that the state of college football was “embarrassing” as two players who were signed to NFL rosters this summer are committed to LSU following a decision by a federal judge in Louisiana. A hearing is set for Thursday as the SEC will argue against an injunction in favor of the players who are the plaintiffs in their suit for a fifth year of eligibility. After the Louisiana court decision, the SEC and other power conferences passed rules preventing players who had signed NFL contracts from returning to college football.
Clemson and LSU meet Saturday in the marquee game of college football’s opening weekend. It’s the second game of a home-and-home series between the schools after LSU beat Clemson 17-10 to open the 2025 season.
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