Ole Miss' Laremy Tunsil text messages reportedly real
OXFORD — Ole Miss believes the alleged text message conversations between former offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil and director of football operations John Miller are real, ESPN reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources.
The school, though, is still investigating whether screenshots of those messages were altered before being posted online.
Screenshots of an alleged conversation between Tunsil and Miller were posted on Tunsil's Instagram account shortly after the Miami Dolphins drafted him No. 13 overall last month. In those messages, Tunsil allegedly asked Miller in conversations dated as occurring on Feb. 14, 2015; Feb. 15, 2015; and April 7, 2015, for money to help pay rent and for his mother's $305 electric and water bill.
Ole Miss announced after Tunsil's comments that it would "aggressively investigate" and cooperate with the Southeastern Conference and the NCAA in the matter. No update on the status of the investigation has been provided publicly.
Athletic director Ross Bjork declined comment Wednesday, saying he couldn't speak at this point.
Director for high school and junior college relations Barney Farrar’s name became included in the situation after one alleged message from Miller read, “See Barney next week.”
Farrar told ESPN's Joe Schad that he didn't give Tunsil money and that Tunsil hadn't asked for money. Attempts to confirm the information with Farrar independently were unsuccessful.
Tunsil told reporters shortly after being drafted that he accepted money from a coach while at Ole Miss. He declined to elaborate further or clarify his comments when asked multiple times during his introductory press conference with the Dolphins the next day.
ESPN also reported Thursday that agent Isaac Conner, executive vice president and general counsel of A3 Athletics in Knoxville, Tennessee, was fined $250 for not notifying Ole Miss before he had contact with Tunsil and Tunsil's family "on or about June 25, 2015."
Tunsil and his stepfather, Lindsey Miller, filed domestic violence criminal charges against each other following an altercation that night. Tunsil claimed he attacked Miller in defense of his mother, Desiree Polingo, while Miller claimed Tunsil attacked him after Miller confronted him about his having contact with agents. Both dropped the charges against each other last August.
Conner, who has been a licensed agent in Mississippi since October 2010 and couldn't be reached for comment, has faced no other disciplinary matters over the past six years, according to the Mississippi Secretary of State's Office.
Conner was part of a Yahoo story about five former SEC players — Alabama's D.J. Fluker, Mississippi State's Fletcher Cox and Chad Bumphis and Tennessee's Tyler Brown and Maurice Couch — who allegedly receiving impermissible benefits during their time in college. The report said former Alabama defensive end Luther Davis acted as an intermediary between those players and agents including Conner.
Contact Daniel Paulling at dpaulling@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @DanielPaulling on Twitter.
