The Tennessee Volunteers have received an NCAA notice of allegations for the football program detailing 18 violations allegedly committed under former Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt. He was fired in January of 2021 after an internal investigation by the program that looked into potential recruiting violations. The allegations include 60,000 dollars in cash and gifts given to recruits by Pruitt, his wife, coaches, staff, and boosters of the program. Despite Pruitt being fired the NCAA will continue to investigate and will likely hand down punishments to both the Tennessee Football program and Jeremy Pruitt.
Hefty charges by the NCAA against Tennessee, saying Jeremy Pruitt and his staff gave players cash and gifts throughout his tenure from 2018-21. And his wife, Casey Pruitt, paid more than $15K in rent and car payments for a Tennessee player and his mother over 2½ years. https://t.co/LdncsKsIPG
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) July 22, 2022
The list of allegations is long and egregious if found to be true. While the Tennessee Football program will likely be punished, the blame will likely fall on former Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt. In his three-season tenure as the Head Coach of Tennessee, Jeremy Pruitt led the team to a 16-19 record and an SEC record of 10-16. His lone bowl game was a win in the 2020 Gator Bowl. The program dropped out of the 2021 Liberty Bowl due to the team’s Coronavirus cases at the time.
Here’s some snapshots of Tennessee’s NCAA NOA. Paints a picture of how blatant former coach Jeremy Pruitt, his staff and wife allegedly were in breaking NCAA rules. pic.twitter.com/T2VkHrqpTr
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) July 22, 2022
Tennessee Football did not win many games for a program supposedly so blatantly violating the rules. The NCAA investigation will continue and take some time before any potential punishments are handed out to anyone. We here at Def Pen Sports will update the story when the NCAA reaches that decision.
