Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney made headlines Friday when he ripped Ole Miss and head coach Pete Golding for “blatantly” tampering with linebacker Luke Ferrelli.

Swinney and athletic director Graham Neff met with the media Friday and announced they turned Golding and the Rebels in to the NCAA for possible violations. Clemson accused Ole Miss of tampering with the linebacker, who was not in the transfer portal and was enrolled at Clemson and attending classes and team activities when the Rebels made contact.

Paul Finebaum joined the McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning show Monday, and the ESPN personality sounded off on Swinney’s comments and putting Golding and Ole Miss on blast Friday.

Finebaum was asked what this changes at all for anyone moving forward, in his opinion.

“Really nothing,” Finebaum answered. “What it really does is it emboldens Ole Miss people. Feeling, ‘OK, our guy is working hard. Our guy is trying to do whatever it takes, whether it’s, in theory, legal or not.’ And that’s kind of where we are in college athletics, as you guys know. And then there’s Dabo Swinney, who just does the wrong thing at the wrong time, looking more distant, more out of touch, more antiquated, more antediluvian than he has ever been. And for a guy that just finished an absolutely miserable season, it doesn’t help him because he is years removed from a legitimate national championship contender. Last year [in the 2024 season], being in the playoffs was more of an outlier than it was reality. Everybody knows Clemson started the season in the top five and ended up nowhere, and I just think it hurts him more than it has in the past.

“And that’s a bad look for a guy that really still has support of a fanbase because he has been one of the more remarkable coaches in changing a program’s direction than anyone in modern history. But he just looks farther and farther away from ever getting Clemson to that moment again.”

In his press conference, Swinney attempted to provide clarity and context as to what happened with the Ferrelli situation. He clearly brought out the receipts regarding Ole Miss’s tampering in what he called a “whole other level” of tampering.

Swinney said what Ole Miss did was “Tampering 301,” meaning a very high level. Swinney also had a message to all the head coaches across the country, challenging fellow coaches to turn in tamperers and calling for his coaching colleagues to “be an example to young coaches in this profession and be people of integrity, or just shut your mouth and don’t complain again.”

During his appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, Finebaum was asked if there’s anything that can actually be done to curb the type of behavior like Golding’s.

“Not much. There’s a little bit, I guess, and I think what everybody in college athletics is waiting to find out is, will anybody do anything? And I think that’s really the problem with Dabo,” Finebaum said.

“Dabo used phrases that, while legitimate in sound, don’t really matter much anymore – like, ‘We’re going to turn you in.’ That used to be the golden phrase – ‘If you do that one more time, Mike Dubose, I’m going to turn you in.’ And it just doesn’t work much anymore. I mean, there’s a way to do this, and I think he could have done it effectively by letting other people do it. But I think Dabo’s problem — and it really doesn’t matter what he said — he still comes off the same way, and that’s that he comes off whiny and out of touch. And I don’t really think he’s that far removed from anybody else. It’s a frustrating thing. I’ve heard other coaches, even in the SEC, screaming about stuff like this, but I think there’s a way to do it. He should let the administrators handle it, as opposed to him doing it.”