Jeremy Pruitt clears up rumor started by former Vols coach on why Tennessee pulled Michael Penix Jr's scholarship offer
Ahead of Washington's matchup against Michigan in the College Football Playoff championship game, one of the popular stories centered around Huskies quarterback Michael Penix Jr and the fact that he was once committed to the Tennessee Vols. The story focused on Penix losing his offer from the Vols after Jeremy Pruitt was hired to replace […]
Ahead of Washington's matchup against Michigan in the College Football Playoff championship game, one of the popular stories centered around Huskies quarterback Michael Penix Jr and the fact that he was once committed to the Tennessee Vols.
The story focused on Penix losing his offer from the Vols after Jeremy Pruitt was hired to replace Butch Jones as the program's head coach.
Ahead of the game, which was won by Michigan, Pruitt spoke to Dawg Nation about why Tennessee pulled Penix's offer.
According to Dawg Nation, former Vols running backs coach Robert Gillespie told Penix's high school coach that Tennessee pulled the scholarship in part because the quarterback is left handed.
From Dawg Nation: Roberts said that former UT assistant and current Alabama assistant Robert Gillespie told him Pruitt and then-Vols’ offensive coordinator Tyson Helton opted to go in another direction, in part, because Penix Jr. was left-handed.
Pruitt pushed back on that comment in his interview with Dawg Nation.
“That’s not true, him being left-handed had nothing to do with it,” said Pruitt.
“The truth of the matter is we all watched the tape and, just being completely honest, we didn’t think he was good enough at that point in his career when he was 17 years old," added Pruitt. "It’s not a perfect science. But look at him now, he’s two inches taller and 30 pounds heavier, a grown man. I’m happy for him, it has worked out great.”
Pruitt noted that Tennessee was also pursuing Keller Chryst and Gardner Minshew as transfer options at the time (they landed Chryst) and they decided to only take one high school quarterback.
“Then we were looking at Keller Chryst from Stanford and Gardner Minshew as grad transfers,” said Pruitt. “Minshew had been up and down at East Carolina back then, and you saw how he turned out, too.”
That's as honest as it gets from Pruitt. There are no excuses, no crazy explanation. Pruitt and the Vols simply passed on Penix because they didn't think he was good enough at the time. They're far from the first staff to misevaluate a quarterback and they won't be the last.
If NFL franchises constantly miss on their evaluations of college quarterbacks, it's obviously going to happen at the college and high school level, too.
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