{"id":155349,"date":"2026-01-29T19:56:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/155349\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T19:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:56:18","slug":"ole-miss-tampering-fresno-state-josiah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/155349\/","title":{"rendered":"Ole Miss tampering Fresno State Josiah"},"content":{"rendered":"

A week after Clemson coach Dabo Swinney went scorched earth on Ole Miss and head coach Pete Golding<\/a> for allegedly tampering with transfer linebacker Luke Ferrelli, reports have surfaced that a second school has accused the Rebels of a similar offense.<\/p>\n

According to a report<\/a> by veteran West Coast sportswriter John Canzano, Fresno State has turned Ole Miss in to the NCAA for tampering with top receiver Josiah Freeman. Freeman, who will be a sixth-year senior in 2026, entered the transfer portal after the 2024 season (ultimately opting to stay with the Bulldogs) but not this year.<\/p>\n

However, that apparently didn\u2019t stop the Rebels. According to Canzano\u2019s report, \u201cAn Ole Miss football staff member made improper contact and tampered with\u201d Freeman, who led the Bulldogs with 52 receptions for 642 yards and six touchdowns in 2025 and was recently granted an extra year<\/a> of eligibility by the NCAA due a season-ending injury suffered early in 2024.<\/p>\n

Fresno State coach Matt Entz and athletics director Garrett Klassy declined comment when contacted by Canzano. However, he wrote that NCAA investigators have already been in contact with school officials.<\/p>\n

In the Clemson case, Ferrelli transferred in from California in early January. During a long and winding press conference last Friday, Swinney said the linebacker \u2014 the ACC\u2019s Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2025 \u2014 had already enrolled in classes, rented an apartment and bought a car in Clemson when Golding began to contact him via text message. <\/p>\n

Ferrelli eventually asked the re-enter the transfer portal, and enrolled at Ole Miss on Jan. 22. At his press conference, Swinney read aloud from text messages that Golding allegedly sent to Ferrelli, including one that said \u201cI know you\u2019re signed. What\u2019s the buyout?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not going to let someone flat out tamper with my program,\u201d Swinney said, via On3<\/a>. \u201cIf you tamper with my players, I\u2019m going to turn you in. There\u2019s a lot more I can say, but I\u2019m going to let the NCAA do its job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tampering with an athlete enrolled at another school is considered a secondary violation by the NCAA, so it\u2019s not entirely clear how severe a punishment Golding and\/or the Rebels program might end up facing. Possible sanctions might include a monetary fine, recruiting restrictions or suspensions for the coaches and staff members involved.<\/p>\n

Coaches have long been loath to publicly accuse other programs of tampering (at least by name), given that many schools engage in similar activities during the \u201cWild West\u201d environment that is the portal period. But it appears those days are over. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A week after Clemson coach Dabo Swinney went scorched earth on Ole Miss and head coach Pete Golding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-155349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}