College football program reportedly recently showed interest in hiring former Tennessee Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt
Jeremy Pruitt hasn’t coached in college football since he was fired by the Tennessee Vols in early 2021
Former Tennessee Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt is trying to return to coaching at the collegiate level.
Pruitt hasn’t coached in college since being dismissed by UT in early 2021 amid a recruiting scandal that helped usher in a new era of Tennessee football.
The recruiting scandal that cost Pruitt his job at Tennessee led to a six-year show-cause ban that runs until 2029 (Pruitt received the show-cause ban in 2023).
An FBS college football program recently showed interest in hiring Jeremy Pruitt
According to a report from AL.com, Pruitt is “seeking a court order against the NCAA so that he can return to a college sideline.”
“Pruitt’s attorneys filed a motion in DeKalb County Oct. 17, seeking a preliminary injunction against the NCAA for interfering with employment opportunities,” wrote AL.com’s Creg Stephenson this week. “The court filing says Pruitt has been ‘effectively black-balled’ from working in college athletics for the last five years and characterized the NCAA’s investigation as ‘flawed.’
“The motion for injunctive relief states that Pruitt had been approached in recent months by multiple schools — including at least two in the state of Alabama — about working as an analyst or consultant, ‘only to be ultimately turned down as a result of the NCAA’s actions.”
According to Stephenson’s report, one of the programs that approached Pruitt was Jacksonville State, which talked to the former Tennessee head coach about a “job opportunity” this past June.
Jacksonville State competes in Conference USA.
Regardless of what anyone thinks about Pruitt and the job he did at Tennessee, I don’t think there’s any doubt that most folks agree that the punishment he received from the NCAA was extreme. According to the NCAA investigation, Pruitt (and/or his staff) handed out around $60,000 in impermissible benefits while at Tennessee.
That amount pales in comparison to what players are receiving from NIL deals these days.
It’s time to let Pruitt back into college football. Love him or hate him, he doesn’t deserve to be blackballed from the sport over something completely legal now.
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