Former Ole Miss players deny pay-for-play claims in new report
By Kevin Duffey
Published:
The Clarion Ledger’s Daniel Paulling spoke to a few former Ole Miss players about pay-for-play allegations.
Paulling’s questions come on the heels of Laremy Tunsil’s stepfather making claims that numerous violations took place between the Rebels and his son over a three-year span. Sports Illustrated dropped the report, which really didn’t have anything new other than detailing the claims. Tunsil’s draft night remarks certainly created quite a stir when he admitted money transferring hands.
Paulling talked to a few former players about the admission and the allegations. Former Rebels’ defender Trae Elston said he never took any money.
“No, I have not received money,” Elston said. “I never heard anything (about people receiving impermissible items), I never seen anything like that. But things happen at all universities. But I don’t think anything happened at the University of Mississippi, though.”
Former highly touted Rebels’ defender Channing Ward’s mind seems like it’s made up about what happened — he takes the admission of Tunsil as fact.
“He said it himself, so I’m not going to say he’s lying about it,” said Ward. “If he said it happened, it happened. I just hated it happened to him. He’s a great guy.”
Ward added later: “Naw, (my family and I) didn’t receive nothing.”
The NCAA is trying to figure out what’s going on — if anything — at Ole Miss. Tunsil’s stepfather said he spoke to the NCAA over 100 hours.
You can read Paulling’s full report here.
A graduate of the University of Florida and founder of Saturday Down South, Kevin is a college football enthusiast.
