CLEMSON — Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney denied claims on Wednesday that Lane Kiffin encouraged him to turn Ole Miss into the NCAA for tampering violations.

Author John Talty writes in his upcoming book, “Lane Being Lane: The Story of Lane Kiffin, College Football’s Agent of Chaos,” that Kiffin encouraged the Tigers’ veteran head coach to make tampering accusations against Ole Miss public.

“Lane had nothing to do with it,” Swinney said after practice on Wednesday. “I turned them in because I had a kid tampered with, was in class a week, and then left. So, it’s all in the NCAA’s hands from there.”

In January, Swinney blasted Ole Miss and head coach Pete Golding, with Swinney publicly accusing Golding and the Rebels of “blatant” tampering with transfer linebacker Luke Ferrelli.

Clemson turned over evidence to the NCAA, alleging that Golding contacted and negotiated with Ferrelli while he was already enrolled and attending classes at Clemson. Ferrelli signed with the Tigers during the portal window, was attending class and taking part in team activities. Swinney said that is when Golding started texting the linebacker directly. With just hours remaining in the portal window, Ferrelli informed Clemson he was heading to Ole Miss.

Eight months after Swinney’s tampering accusations during his Jan. 23 press conference, during which Swinney brought out the receipts on what he called a “whole other level” of tampering, Swinney went on another tampering rant – this time, regarding a CBSSports.com report.

On Wednesday evening, during his final media availability ahead of Saturday’s game at No. 11 LSU, Swinney responded to a report from CBS Sports that Kiffin “fed” him intel and “egged him on” to turn in Ole Miss for tampering with Ferrelli and launch a public attack on the Rebels.

Swinney addressed the report and says Kiffin, who left Ole Miss at the end of November 2025 to become the head coach at LSU, had “nothing to do” with Clemson turning Ole Miss into the NCAA.

“Lane Kiffin had nothing to do – I mean, zero to do – with me turning in the tampering situation here at Clemson. Zero,” Swinney said.

Swinney added that “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,” Swinney reiterated. “I was turning that in the moment he left. Again, nothing against the kid – just the system and the process of what happened. And I laid that out very clear, what happened. So now, it goes to the NCAA.”

Swinney acknowledged that Kiffin and “a lot” of other coaches contacted him to share “hearsay” regarding the situation, but Swinney made it clear that those conversations played no role in Clemson’s decision to report Ole Miss.

“Lane, after the kid left and all that, he certainly reached out, and I think they’ve got some back-and-forth obviously with those two schools [Ole Miss and LSU],” Swinney said. “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.”

“Did I have people call me with a lot of hearsay and whatever? Yeah. A bunch of people. I ain’t into none of that,” Swinney added. “I don’t care about anything of that. I didn’t share nothing with anybody, other than this is what happened at my school, and gave the exact timeline, and that’s it.

Swinney dismissed the CBS Sports report, saying that “people can make up whatever stories they want.”

“Lane Kiffin didn’t have anything to do with that,” Swinney said again. “So people can make up whatever stories they want. If you tamper with our players, and I find out, I’m going to turn it in. All the other stuff, all this hearsay, all these things – I don’t care. I could care less, again, what people do or how they live their lives, how they run their programs. I could care less. My focus is Clemson. Period. And that’s it.

According to a May report from ESPN, the NCAA opened an investigation of the Ole Miss football program the same day that Swinney accused Golding of tampering with Ferrelli.

Earlier this week, Swinney said he hasn’t heard anything from the NCAA regarding the tampering allegations against Ole Miss and Golding.

“No, I haven’t heard anything,” Swinney said on Tuesday. “It was true, he was in school for a week, it did happen. Then he magically ended up at another place. It really doesn’t frustrate me. I am just trying to win a game this weekend. That’s it. Let everybody else worry about all that stuff.”