The University of Tennessee fired Jeremy Pruitt, its football coach, and nine other team members after the school investigated whether the program violated NCAA recruitment regulations, the school announced on Monday.
The layoffs begin to take effect on Tuesday.
In November, the university initiated an investigation in collaboration with a law firm, Bond, Schoeneck & King, to determine whether the football program violated NCAA rules by recruiting candidates for its team, discovering that “Coach Pruitt did not meet the university expectations to promote an atmosphere of compliance and / or to monitor the activities of the trainers and staff who report to him. “
Among those dismissed were assistant football coaches Brian Niedermeyer and Shelton Felton, four members of the football team’s recruiting team on campus, the director and assistant director of football players’ staff and a football quality control coach.
“What is so worrying, as demonstrated by the scope of these actions, is the number of violations and people involved and their efforts to hide their activities from our compliance team and the leaders of the athletics department,” said Donde Plowman, dean of the school . in a press release. “Despite a strong culture of compliance in our sports department, we must look for ways to further strengthen our processes.
Tennessee informed the NCAA of the violations, and the university opened its own case in December, Plowman told a news conference on Monday. She did not cite specific violations, because both the school’s investigation and the NCAA case are ongoing, but said there were likely to be a “significant number” of Level I and Level II violations. Level I violations are considered “serious” violations of conduct, including fraud and unethical conduct that signals a “lack of institutional control”. Level II is considered “significant”.
Pruitt, 46, was hired in December 2017 and had a 16-19 record in three seasons. He had 3-7 this year, while Tennessee played exclusively within his league, the Southeast Conference, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The university, claiming just and fair dismissal, will not pay Pruitt any of its estimated $ 12.6 million; neither will he pay Niedermeyer or Felton for his acquisitions.
On a declaration released Monday night, Pruitt’s lawyer, Michael Lyons, said the nature of the resignation showed the university’s effort to get rid of him without paying for the purchase, despite minimal evidence that Pruitt violated NCAA regulations. Lyons said that in a private meeting between Pruitt and Plowman, Plowman said that “there was no evidence that Coach Pruitt was actively involved in any alleged violation or knew that it was taking place”. Lyons also said that Pruitt received the letter of termination three hours after Plowman said that no employment decision had been made.
“The timing of the University’s actions and decisions seems to be predetermined and more about financial convenience and convenience than a fair and complete factual determination by the University,” wrote Lyons.
He added that he would defend Pruitt against any violations of which he is accused by the NCAA and investigate whether the university intended to “tarnish and destroy Coach Pruitt’s reputation” to cancel the payments he would be owed for a regular release.
Several current and former Tennessee players and former players posted their surprise on Pruitt’s resignation on Twitter.
“Crazy,” I wrote defensive attack Omari Thomas.
“Because,” I wrote quarterback Brian Maurer.
The university’s sports director, Phillip Fulmer, also announced that he would retire as soon as the school found a replacement for him. Fulmer, 70, left his retirement in 2017 to oversee athletics at the school in Knoxville, Tennessee, on a “short-term basis,” according to the announcement. The university said the search for Fulmer’s replacement would begin immediately and that the new athletic director would hire the new football coach.
“Our next football coach needs to stay away for 10 years or more and needs to know who his athletic director will be during that time,” said Fulmer. “It only makes sense that I make this change now, so that a new coach and a new sporting director can implement their vision together.”
Ploughman said Fulmer was not involved in any of the possible recruitment violations. Pruitt’s dismissal means Tennessee will hire his fifth different full-time coach since Fulmer stopped training in 2008.
Kevin Steele, the team’s newly hired defensive assistant, will serve as interim coach.
“This is very unfortunate, in the sense that we will have to work hard to prevent it from getting in the way,” Fulmer said at a news conference.