The penalty ‘should be severe’: Beamer reacts to alleged Ole Miss tampering

“Tampering” in sports was once a term reserved for the professional ranks. Essentially, it’s when a team or a team representative recruits another team’s player during a time period that’s not allowed.

Now that NIL contracts and the transfer portal have taken over the NCAA, tampering is much more prevalent at the college level .

This was no more apparent than when Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney called out Ole Miss coach Pete Golding for allegedly recruiting transfer linebacker Luke Ferrelli after he’d already signed and enrolled in classes at Clemson.

Ferrelli flipped to Ole Miss on Jan. 22.

“This is a whole other level of tampering,” Swinney said in a Jan. 23 press conference. “It’s total hypocrisy. ... This is a really sad state of affairs. We have a broken system, and if there are no consequences for tampering, then we have no rules and we have no governance.”

Fellow in-state head coach Shane Beamer was asked his opinion on the situation Wednesday during his first media appearance since Jan. 2. Though Beamer wasn’t initially asked directly about the Clemson-Ole Miss situation, he was asked what the punishment should be for a coach who tampers with another team’s player. He said while it’s not his call, he thinks it should be severe.

When later asked directly about Swinney calling out Golding, Beamer said should the allegations be true, such extreme instances of tampering should be called out.

“I think a lot of those conversations happen head coach to head coach, and then if there’s things that need to be turned into the NCAA or the SEC, we have,” Beamer said. “But to be able to call someone out publicly like that was the next step.”

Swinney alleges Golding continued to tamper with Ferrelli even as he and other Clemson staff asked Ole Miss administration for Golding to cease communication with the California transfer. Clemson submitted a complaint to the NCAA on Jan. 16.

Beamer added that what NCAA chooses to do if it finds the report to be true will set the precedent for portal cycles to come.

“I would say that myself and every coach in America is sitting around waiting to see what’s going to happen in regards to that situation,” he said. “Because if it’s proven that did happen, and then nothing happens? You think it’s the wild West now, just wait where it’s going to turn into.”