Two months after Clemson's Dabo Swinney publicly accused Pete Golding of tampering in a 20-minute rant, the Ole Miss coach recounted the acquisition of linebacker Luke Ferrelli from his perspective.
“There’s two sides to every story,” Golding said Tuesday.
Ferrelli, a freshman linebacker from Cal, landed with Clemson via the transfer portal in early January. He began classes and team meetings. Then, 20 days later, he transferred to Ole Miss.
“He came on an official visit right prior to the Fiesta Bowl, and I told him, ‘Hey, I want you to be our green-dot Mike, but right now, we've got a green-dot Mike. And that spot’s not going to be available until, you know, we have one available,’” Golding recalled.
That job belonged to TJ Dottery, a junior linebacker whose helmet featured a small green dot on the back, signifying he was the chosen one with a direct communicator in his helmet where he could listen to coaches on the sideline or in the booth. It was Dottery's job to then communicate with the defense.
That job became available weeks later, when the linebacker followed coach Lane Kiffin to LSU.
“I said, ‘But right now there ain’t a spot available. So, if that spot becomes available, it’s yours,'” Golding continued. "It’s a kid that wanted to be here, that we wanted to be here, that at the end of it, came open, and he’s here, and we’re happy to have him.”
Swinney, who compared the situation to ‘having an affair on your honeymoon,’ said he forwarded evidence to the NCAA.
“If you tamper with my players, I’m going to turn you in. It’s just that simple,” Swinney said. “I’m not out to get anybody fired, but there has to be accountability and consequences for this type of behavior and total disregard for the rules."
NCAA vice president of enforcement Jon Duncan said in a statement at the time that the association “will investigate any credible allegations of tampering and expect full cooperation from all involved as required by NCAA rules.”
Two months later, no ruling has been made to suggest tampering was found.
“I’m not going to sit up here and use the podium as a grandstand," Golding said. "That’s why we have a compliance office.”
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FILE - Mississippi head coach Pete Golding walks the sideline during the second half of the Sugar Bowl NCAA college football playoff quarterfinal game against Georgia on Jan. 1, 2026, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton Hinton, File)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — New DNA testing has definitively linked the unsolved death of a Utah teenager in 1974 to the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, the local sheriff’s office said Wednesday.
Laura Ann Aime, 17, went missing Halloween night 51 years ago after she left a party alone to go to a convenience store. About a month later, her body was found on the side of a highway in American Fork Canyon. She was bound, beaten and without clothing. Authorities said she had likely been kept alive for several days after her abduction.
Investigators long suspected that Bundy was responsible — police said he verbally acknowledged his culpability before his execution in Florida in 1989 — but the case remained open until they could be certain.
“It's really quite amazing that people are even still interested in Laura's case,” her sister, Michelle Impala, said at a news conference Wednesday. “Know I speak for my family when I thank you, and thank you media, too, for even caring.”
Bundy was one of the nation’s most prolific serial killers, with at least 30 women and girls’ deaths linked to him in several states in the 1970s. His murders — which occurred in sorority houses, parks and elsewhere — set the nation on edge. Bundy’s arrest drew widespread fascination, in part because many considered him to be charming and handsome.
Investigators had carefully preserved the evidence from Aime’s case, and forensic analysts were able to identify portions that seemed most likely to have usable DNA samples, Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said.
The state crime lab got new technology in 2023 that allows investigators to extract DNA from samples even if they are small, degraded from age or contain DNA from multiple people, he said. That technology allowed them to identify a single male DNA profile, which they submitted to a national law enforcement database.
Bundy’s DNA was a match, Mason said.
That profile can now be used by other law enforcement agencies who have long suspected Bundy of additional unsolved killings, he said, adding that more families could get similar closure.
“Laura Aime is the quintessential daughter of Utah County,” Sgt. Mike Reynolds said. “We felt the pain the family feels when she was taken. We felt the pain that you felt this whole entire time, and we’ve had the desire to deliver to you some type of healing.”
Impala was only 12 when her older sister died. Even with a five-year age gap, she said they were very close and did everything together. They shared a bedroom on the family's farm in Fairview, Utah, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Provo.
“I'm a little kid just following her around, but we had a lot in common," Impala said.
Impala reminisced about about riding horses with her sister and watching Aime feed her horse licorice nibs.
“When she died, he would not eat those anymore,” she said.
It’s not known when Bundy first began his attacks, but by 1974, young women — many of them college students — began disappearing in Washington state. Authorities were still investigating those cases when Bundy moved to Salt Lake City and began killing people in Utah, Idaho and Colorado.
At the time of Aime’s killing, Bundy was studying law at the University of Utah.
In August 1975, he was arrested for the first time in connection with the attacks. Police pulled him over and found incriminating items in his vehicle including rope, handcuffs and a ski mask.
He was found guilty the following year of kidnapping and assaulting a teen in Utah who had managed to get away. Bundy was sentenced to 15 years in prison for that crime, and while imprisoned he was charged in connection with the earlier death of a nursing student.
He was brought to Aspen, Colorado, for a hearing in that case in 1977, and he escaped custody by climbing out a second-story courthouse window when he was left alone for a time. He was caught after about a week, but escaped again six months later by breaking through the ceiling of a jail.
Bundy fled across the country, eventually making his way to Tallahassee, Florida. On Jan. 15, 1977, he entered the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University, bludgeoning two women to death with a large branch and leaving two more badly injured. He then went to another house nearby, badly injuring another woman.
Less than a month later, he abducted, sexually assaulted and killed a 12-year-old girl in Lake City, Florida. Kimberly Leach was believed to be his last victim before he was arrested again and executed years later.
Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.
Brent Bullock, center left, who led investigations at the Utah County Attorney's Office around the time of Laura Ann Aime's murder, shakes hands with Michelle Impala, Aime's younger sister, after a news conference at the Utah County Sheriff's Office in Spanish Fork, Utah, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, announcing definitive evidence linking Ted Bundy to Aime's murder. (Isaac Hale/The Deseret News via AP)
Michelle Impala, right, sister of Laura Ann Aime, speaks, joined by Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith, during a news conference announcing that definitive evidence has linked Ted Bundy to Aime's murder, at the Utah County Sheriff's Office, in Spanish Fork, Utah, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Isaac Hale/The Deseret News via AP)
Utah County Sheriff's Deputy Jake Hall, lead detective on the case, looks to other family members as he hugs Tommi Aime, youngest sister of Laura Ann Aime, after announcing that definitive evidence has linked Ted Bundy to Laura's murder at a news conference at the Utah County Sheriff's Office, in Spanish Fork, Utah, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Isaac Hale/The Deseret News via AP)
FILE - Mourners say goodbye to Kimberly Leach at her funeral, April 13, 1978, in Lake City, Fla. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Accused murderer Ted Bundy attends the second day of jury selection in his murder trial, June 27, 1979, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo,File)
FILE - Accused murderer Ted Bundy leans back in his chair as trial judge Edward Cowart speaks, in Tallahassee, Fla., April 26, 1979. (AP Photo/Mark Foley, File)
