Matt Luke may no longer be involved with Ole Miss football, but the former Rebels coach reportedly played a key role in protecting his alma mater when Lane Kiffin began helping Clemson coach Dabo Swinney build a case against Ole Miss.
John Talty, a national college sports writer for CBS Sports, revealed Tuesday that none other than Luke reportedly thwarted Kiffin’s efforts to help another program take his previous employer down. Luke was an offensive lineman at Ole Miss from 1995-98 and served as the team’s head coach from 2017-19. His brother, Tom, currently serves as the Rebel football program’s associate AD for player development. Kiffin was the head coach at Ole Miss from 2020 until his awkward departure for LSU last November.
In his book “Lane Being Lane: The Story of Lane Kiffin, College Football’s Agent of Chaos,” which will be released in full Sept. 15, Talty dove into the recruitment of current Rebel linebacker Luke Ferrelli. The reigning ACC Rookie of the Year transferred to Clemson and enrolled in classes at the university in the offseason before eventually jumping ship to Ole Miss.
When Ferrelli found his new home in Oxford, Swinney promptly accused Ole Miss and new head coach Pete Golding and other members of the Rebels’ program, both past and present, of blatant misconduct. And according to Talty, Kiffin egged it on to get revenge on Ole Miss. Why? Because Ole Miss Athletics Director Keith Carter did not allow him to lead the team during the Rebels’ historic College Football Playoff run when he had already committed to coach at LSU.
Swinney, in a January press conference, alleged that Golding made impermissible contact with Ferrelli by texting him a picture of a $1 million contract, and that former Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart and current signal-caller Trinidad Chambliss reached out to the sophomore to push him to re-enter the transfer portal. Kiffin, according to Talty’s book, even helped gather dirt on his former employer.
“Kiffin even passed along information, according to multiple sources, to help Swinney in his crusade against Golding and Ole Miss,” Talty wrote.
Kiffin’s Ole Miss predecessor, Luke, on the other hand, was not going to let his alma mater be hung out to dry. Luke, Clemson’s current offensive line coach, reportedly reached out to Ole Miss with a warning that Kiffin was working behind the scenes to go public with accusations against the program.
That warning reportedly allowed Ole Miss to mobilize and have a defense ready for the program. Swinney ultimately turned Ole Miss in to the NCAA for the alleged infractions, but Golding is said to have told league officials that he has incriminating evidence on other programs. Notably, Golding has implied that LSU tampered with former Rebel linebacker T.J. Dottery. The NCAA has not taken any action against Ole Miss as it relates to Ferrelli’s transfer.
In this tale of two former Ole Miss coaches, as reported by Talty, Luke proved to be a harbinger that benefited the Rebels, while Kiffin has somehow grown more villainous in Oxford, which was seemingly impossible until it was revealed that he is actively looking to bite the hand that once fed him.
It’s even more interesting that Kiffin was willing to go to such lengths to help his week one opponent, as LSU is set to welcome Clemson in Baton Rouge on Saturday. For Ole Miss, however, more gas has been thrown onto the fire of what is expected to be a remarkably tense Sept. 19 in Oxford when Kiffin and his Tigers come to town.
But for now, according to Golding, Ole Miss’ focus is on Louisville. The Rebels will play the Cardinals in Nashville’s Nissan Stadium on Sunday night.