Pete Golding on tampering: 'Let's not act like recruiting … is the most moral thing'
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Pete Golding compared college football recruiting to driving on the interstate during a fiery tirade at his first SEC Football Media Days as Mississippi's head coach.
The 42-year-old former defensive coordinator, who was accused of tampering over the offseason, was brutally honest when discussing modern recruiting with reporters on Wednesday, July 22.
"When you're on the interstate and people are flying by you, what do you start doing?" he said. "You (expletive) right, you're going to get hit, right? That make sense? In this profession, you're going to get fired."
Golding, who was elevated to head coach after Lane Kiffin left for LSU, led the Rebels to the College Football Playoff semifinals last season after taking down Tulane and Georgia. He and Ole Miss later came under fire in the offseason after Clemson coach Dabo Swinney accused the Rebels of tampering with linebacker Luke Ferrelli, who originally committed to Clemson in the transfer portal from Cal before flipping to the Rebels.
Swinney said Golding was texting Ferrelli while the linebacker was in class at Clemson, offering him $1 million to come to Oxford, Mississippi. The Clemson coach's tirade during a January news conference sparked an ongoing NCAA investigation into Ole Miss for tampering.
"Would you quit your job before interviewing for another job or being offered another job? No, nobody would," Golding said on July 22. "But we have a portal you can go in with a do-not-contact (tag). And I'm going to quit my job, but nobody can call me to interview."
While Golding didn't mention specifics involving Ferrelli's situation in Tampa, he did say college football recruiting is far from having integrity.
"What have we created? We have created it on top of representation for these players, that it's their responsibility for them to get paid really well and they also have opportunities," Golding said. "By design, it's put a lot of people in bad positions. Let's not act like recruiting in college football for the last 100 years is the most moral thing that's ever existed. I mean, what are we talking about here."
Golding told the NCAA in May he would expose rampant tampering if he were to be sanctioned for the Ferrelli recruitment, according to USA TODAY Sports. He didn't deny his role in Ferrelli's recruitment to USA TODAY Sports, but made it clear he feels the need to speed up with recruiting rules running wild, just like his comparison to driving on the interstate.
"… The model obviously has been broken," he said. "I'm all for everybody being on the same playing field and doing the same things, I get it, but I think that's in any job. As coaches, we're under contract, you don't think other ADs are calling us during the year? The same ones that are (expletive) about all this stuff are the same ones calling coaches to come to other schools. It's everywhere in every profession."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pete Golding on tampering: 'Let's not act like recruiting … is the most moral thing'
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