The story of the last several months has been the battle between the LSU Tigers and Ole Miss Rebels over Lane Kiffin's potential departure. Lane Kiffin took the offensive staff to Baton Rouge, while Pete Golding took the Rebels to the College Football Playoff semifinals. The real battleground was going to come when the Transfer Portal opened up.
The Rebels did a great job locking key pieces into place, but the Tigers new head coach has taken some pieces with him. Lane Kiffin has taken Ole Miss stars Princewill Umanmielen, TJ Dottery, and Winston Watkins with him to Baton Rouge. The two defensive stars following Lane Kiffin came as a shock, and it may have landed Pete Golding in hot water.
Pete Golding's Luke Ferrelli drama all leads back to Lane Kiffin
On Thursday, Ole Miss landed former Clemson signee Luke Ferrelli after he transferred from Cal to Clemson. On Friday, Dabo Swinney called a press conference where he put the Rebels on blast declaring that Golding texted Ferrelli knowing that he was signed, but asking for the buyout price.
NEW: Clemson's Dabo Swinney accuses Ole Miss and Pete Golding of tampering with LB Luke Ferrelli😳
— On3 (@On3) January 23, 2026
Swinney says Golding texted Ferrelli: "I know you're signed, but what is your buyout."
"I am not going to let someone flat out tamper with my program. If you tamper with my… https://t.co/nytoWM6v7o pic.twitter.com/dK1PZzQTkb
The Ole Miss Rebels likely wouldn't be in this situation if it weren't for their biggest enemy and former head coach Lane Kiffin. The Tigers landed both edge rushers Princewill Umanmielen and linebacker TJ Dottery after reports sparked that Lane Kiffin had leaked salaries of transfers to Ole Miss players.
The timeline Dabo Swinney laid out directly lines up with TJ Dottery entering the Transfer Portal on the night of January 14th.
8 minutes of Dabo Swinney flaming Ole Miss for tampering with Clemson’s Luke Ferrelli
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) January 23, 2026
“Pete Golding just does what he does."
Dabo shares an entire timeline of the events
Wow
pic.twitter.com/mJlXUGaeoz
Pete Golding likely doesn't need to land a linebacker if TJ Dottery doesn't enter the Transfer Portal late in the transfer cycle. Instead, Ole Miss needed to double back to one of their previous top transfer targets and it's now created a massive tampering scandal that will likely lead to even more issues that play out in court which is just what College Football needs with everything that continues to play out.