Jeremy Pruitt Back in the News Again
By Mark Nagi
Tennessee athletics is in as good a place across the board as it has ever been.
Revenue and non-revenue sports are winning at a high level. Donations to the athletics department are up. Neyland Stadium continues to get massive upgrades.
We are smack dab in the middle of the good ol’ days.
But every now and then we see something that reminds us of the bad times.
With that in mind, I give you Jeremy Pruitt. Former Tennessee football coach and current litigator.
On Thursday, March 27, Pruitt filed a lawsuit against the NCAA, claiming that they conspired with the University of Tennessee and others to make him a “sacrificial lamb” in their recruiting violations investigation.
The filing states, “With a direct financial stake in the outcome, and in the face of a glaring conflict of interest, the NCAA empowered the University of Tennessee to use its own attorneys to investigate the University, including Pruitt, and to determine the scope of the investigation into alleged rules violations during Coach Pruitt’s tenure as head coach. UT had a vested interest in the pre-determined outcome of the one-sided ‘investigation,’ so that it could justify its failure to pay Jeremy the millions of dollars due under his buyout and other incentives stipulated in his contract.”
Pruitt was fired in January 2021 after UT found evidence of extensive recruiting violations. “The information presented to us indicates serious violations of NCAA rules, they occurred and that these serious infractions warrant immediate action,” said UT chancellor Donde Plowman at the time.
She added, “What’s astonishing is the number of violations and their efforts to conceal the wrongdoing.
In all, ten members of that coaching staff were fired. But the biggest hit was to Pruitt. That firing was deemed “with cause” by UT, meaning that they were not going to pay his buyout, which was over $12 million.
The dismissal of Pruitt was not met with very much sadness by Tennessee fans. In 3 seasons in Knoxville, Pruitt led the Vols to a 16-19 record, including a 3-7 Covid season in 2020. They only went 2-11 against Top 25 opponents.
In July 2023, the NCAA Committee on infractions detailed the violations under Pruitt, 200 of them. That included 18 Level 1 violations. Tennessee had no choice but to fire Pruitt, but certainly didn’t mind keeping that buyout cash. UT had doled out tens of millions of dollars in buyouts over the previous 13 years.
Pruitt received a six-year show cause penalty while Tennessee was fined $8 million, had scholarship reductions, was placed on probation and forced to vacate 11 wins. However, UT did avoid a postseason ban due to what the NCAA said was “exemplary cooperation.”
The lawsuit claims $100 million in lost wages.
There is no love lost here. Pruitt is airing all the dirty laundry, saying that Tennessee was illegally paying players before he arrived.
Tennessee football has flourished without Pruitt with 37 wins over the last 4 seasons, including 30 since 2022. They’ve been to the postseason in each of those years under head coach Josh Heupel, winning two of three bowl games and making an appearance in the first College Football Playoff.
But Pruitt’s failures, on and off the field, still hang over the program.
