Colorado football coach Deion Sanders this week called out an ACC program for allegedly tampering in the transfer portal.
Sanders made the accusation about the Virginia Cavaliers. UVA is led by head coach Tony Elliott, a longtime Clemson football assistant. Elliott was the Tigers‘ offensive coordinator during their stretch of six straight College Football Playoff appearances, including their 2016 and 2018 national championship seasons.
Without mentioning Elliott or any one person by name, “Coach Prime” accused Virginia of tampering with Colorado safety Carter Stoutmire, a 5-foot-11, 170-pound junior safety and 3-star recruit out of Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano, Texas.
During a speech inside the Buffaloes’ practice facility, Sanders said to a room of gathered players and personnel: “Carter got offered a bag. Where Carter at? What’s the school? What’s the school offer you the bag?”
When Stoutmire answered that it was Virginia, Sanders spoke directly into a nearby camera:
“Virginia, you gotta stop. I let you have one. I ain’t say nothing about it. Come on now. Come on. We let you have one. I ain’t say nothing about it.”
An unidentified player or staffer in the facility can be heard in the background yelling: “We’re coming for you.”
The transfer portal is full of numerous issues that need regulation by the NCAA (or whatever passes for the once-powerful college sports governing body), particularly with tampering and NIL. Still, it’s rare to see a coach call out a program by name the way Sanders did.
Dabo Swinney himself has expressed frustration over tampering as it pertains to the transfer portal. Back in September, Swinney said on a weekly conference call with reporters:
“There’s certainly a lot of tampering (from) people after games, that’s for sure. I’ve had several people over the last couple of years that have brought that up to me, where somebody’s come over to them. I’ve had parents tell me that. That’s just kind of the way it is, the way of the world right now. There’s not a lot of barriers.”
Swinney didn’t name any program directly and said that he limited his postgame communication with opposing players to handshakes. He added:
“I ain’t going over there saying, ‘Hey man, if you hate it there, come play for us.’ I don’t do any of that stuff. On the road, I try to congratulate players, but I don’t get involved with any of that stuff. I think that’s probably pretty obvious.”
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