Clemson had a very public transfer portal situation with former Cal linebacker Luke Ferrelli.

Ferrelli visited Clemson early on in the portal window, then quickly announced a commitment to the Tigers. The school officially announced his addition, and the rising redshirt sophomore was enrolled, attending classes and participating in team activities. Then, news broke over the weekend of his impending departure.

On Thursday, Ferrelli was officially back in the transfer portal, and he announced a commitment to Ole Miss the same day.

On Friday, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney met with the media and discussed Clemson’s transfer signees and big-picture items related to roster management. During that portion of his press conference, Swinney attempted to provide clarity and context as to what happened with the Ferrelli situation.

Swinney clearly brought out the receipts to his press conference regarding Ole Miss’s tampering – what he called a “whole other level” of tampering.

Following is a transcript of the very descriptive and detailed timeline that Swinney gave regarding the Ferrelli situation:

“First of all, we did everything right. The kid goes in the portal, we reach out, he’s interested. Comes and visits Clemson, says this is where he wants to go, and we sign him. He moves to Clemson, rents an apartment, buys a car, goes to class for a week. Trains, team meeting, position meetings. Writes out his goals for the semester. Full-blown, Clemson student. Like, we’re rolling. And then all of a sudden, not here anymore.

“So, how did we get here? Sunday, January 4, [Clemson Football General Manager] Jordan Sorrells had his first conversation with Ryan Williams, the agent. And on Monday, January 5 at 8:30, Luke Ferrelli, he showed up here at Clemson with his dad for his official visit, and they came over to my house a little after 9 or so that night. So, I had a chance to meet with them for the very first time, and it was just a get-to-know-each-other right there at the beginning, and we had a good conversation. My first question was – they had just come in off an Ole Miss visit – and I said, ‘How was the visit?’ And his dad said, ‘Not good.’ Said it was a mess, it was unorganized, it was chaos, the building was a mess, nobody knew what was going on. I was like, ‘Well, look forward to y’all seeing Clemson tomorrow. We’re going to be organized and structured.’ So, just kind of had some chit-chat that night.

“And then the next day, on Tuesday, January 6, he had his visit on campus at 2:30. Ryan Williams, the agent, Luke, the player, and his dad, they verbally accepted the terms of the offer, and they made a commitment to Clemson. Everybody high-fived it, everybody’s excited. We were going to take one linebacker. We were going to take one. So, we got our linebacker. We cancelled all the visits of all the other guys that we were going to schedule to come in throughout the rest of the week, because we’re done. We’re taking one. We’ve made our commitment. He’s signed.  

“That was at 2:30. At 3:15, Luke and his dad left town to go back to California. Then Wednesday, January 7 at 11 a.m., Luke signed his financial aid agreement with Clemson. And then Sunday, January 11, he moved to Clemson. Again, rents an apartment, buys a car, goes to class for a week. He’s in training for a week. Team meeting, position meeting, all that.

“And then on Wednesday, January 14 at 9:49 p.m., the agent, Ryan Williams, calls Jordan Sorrells. And during that conversation, Ryan conveys that Ole Miss has been coming hard after Luke. Sorrells confirmed with the agent, he said, ‘Are you talking about the same Luke that’s enrolled at Clemson, that’s been in class, that’s moved here, that signed with Clemson?’ And the agent assured him, ‘Yes, the same one.’ But he also assured Jordan Sorrells that Luke had no intention of leaving Clemson, but just thought y’all should be in the loop and check up on him tomorrow.

“So, Thursday, January 15 at 11:45 a.m., just this past Thursday, Jordan came to me and he told me about the conversation he had the night before with the agent at 9:49. And so I directed Sorrells, I said, ‘Who’s their GM?’ He said, ‘His name is Austin Thomas.’ I said, ‘Well, you reach out to their GM.’ He said he knows him. I said, ‘This guy has been a head coach for four weeks.’ I said, ‘You reach out to the GM. I’m going to give him some grace, and you let him know that we know what’s going on, and if he doesn’t cease communication, I’m going to turn him in.’ And so I really thought that would be the end of it, but it wasn’t.

“That was 11:45. At 12:10, Jordan communicated to Austin Thomas via text because he was unable to reach him on the phone. And just a few minutes later at 12:14, they both connected on the phone – the Ole Miss GM, Austin Thomas – and Jordan reiterated our stance one more time. The GM assured Jordan that he had communicated to the agent that he wanted no part of this, and that his relationship with Jordan was more important to him than Luke Ferrelli, but that [Ole Miss head coach] Pete Golding ‘just does what he does.’

“So at 1:30, Sorrells met with Luke face to face in his office. And Luke communicated to Jordan, and to [Clemson linebackers coach] Ben Boulware, that Pete texted him on Wednesday morning, the head coach at Ole Miss, when he was in his 8 a.m. class. And he said the text message said, ‘I know you’re signed. What’s the buyout?’ And Luke said that Coach Golding also texted him a picture of a $1 million contract. Luke also mentioned to Jordan and to Ben that Coach Golding had [Ole Miss quarterback] Trinidad Chambliss call him from his phone, and that Coach Golding was there continuing to talk on his phone to push him to re-enter the transfer portal. He also said that [former Ole Miss quarterback] Jaxson Dart had reached out and called him. But Luke again assured Jordan that he had no intention of leaving. And Jordan kept me in the loop and told me the same thing.

“So, we had a staff meeting on Friday morning, January 16, the last day of the portal. At 11:20, Luke called Ben Boulware and told him that Mississippi had reached out again – even though I had kind of let them know the day before – had reached out again, and they had not only reached out, but they had upped and doubled their offer. But Luke told Ben, ‘Hey, we’re good.’ Ben told Luke to come to the office and see Sorrells and Coach Swinney and let them know, hey, everything is OK.

“When that was over, Ben then texted Jordan Sorrells, and he let him know that Ole Miss had raised its offer to two years, $2 million. And again, he had told Luke to come over and see us and let us know that everything is good. So at 11:20, Luke called Ben. At 11:22, he texted Jordan this. At 11:57, Sorrells spoke with the agent, Ryan Williams, about the situation once again. The agent confirmed that head coach Pete Golding had continued to communicate with Luke and had raised the offer once again. Jordan asked to have Luke to give us the text messages that he had received from Coach Golding, but the agent was hesitant to do that because he didn’t want to burn any bridges with Ole Miss, as you never know what will happen down the road. However, the agent communicated that if we were to add a second year at a million dollars to the already agreed-upon deal with Luke, then they would gladly give us whatever we need in order to turn Ole Miss in. Which Jordan appropriately said, ‘No, we’re not doing that.’ He also communicated that Ole Miss Assistant Director of Player Personnel Jai Choudhary was pushing to set up a Zoom call with them to discuss the details of their contract offer.

“So that was 11:57, talking to the agent. At 12:30, Sorrells met Luke out in the parking lot outside our football facility, and Luke communicated that he was coming to assure him and Coach Swinney that he wasn’t going anywhere. I was not in the building. Jordan called me to let me know what Luke said, and for me to reach out to him. I called Luke and didn’t get answer. I’m back at work, I’m in my office, everything’s good.

“4:14, Jordan Sorrells comes to see me. He had gotten a call from compliance telling him that Luke is in our compliance office trying to request to re-enter the transfer portal. So Jordan let me know, he let [Clemson defensive coordinator] Tom Allen know, called Luke. No answer.

“At 4:19, Jordan called the agent, Ryan Williams, again to alert him that Luke had requested to enter the portal. He responded via text to let him know that he was flying. Sorrells texted, ‘Luke just reached out to our compliance and requested to go in the portal. What the heck is going on?’ The agent’s response was, ‘Oh, bleep. Let me try and find out.’

“At 4:40, Sorrells and Coach Allen arrived at Luke’s apartment. Luke was in the driveway when they got there. His immediate response was, ‘I’m going to Ole Miss.’ Coach Allen and Jordan spent some time talking to him, and when they departed, he just said, ‘I need to clear my head.’

“At 5:39, Jordan spoke with the Ole Miss GM, Austin Thomas, again to let him know that we knew all that was going on and that we were going to pursue all options to hold them accountable for tampering.

“And then at 7:20, after a phone call with Tom Allen and Ben Boulware, Luke affirmed his plan to enter the transfer portal, and then he called me and told me the same thing. Once I got word of all this at 4:15 that he was going over there trying to go in the portal, I immediately called our AD, Graham Neff. I also called [ACC] Commissioner [Jim] Phillips. He also called the SEC Commissioner [Greg Sankey], and others.

“So, this is obviously a crazy time. We turned everything in to the NCAA. And I’m just going to say this. There’s tampering, and then there’s blatant tampering. Tampering 101 is when you’re talking to kids who aren’t in the portal. Tampering 201 is when you’ve already negotiated the deal when the kid’s not in the portal. Tampering 301 is when you’ve got a kid who’s gone in the portal, signed somewhere, moved there, gone to classes, and you’re texting them while they’re in class. That’s like a whole other level of tampering.”

Ferrelli was the ACC Defensive Freshman of the Year in 2025 after tying for second on his team with 87 tackles, while adding five tackles for loss, one sack, one interception that he returned 2 yards, one pass breakup and one quarterback hurry. He tied for eighth in the ACC in total tackles and tied for ninth in tackles per game (7.3), earning All-ACC honorable mention.