After firing Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee chancellor vows Vols football will operate 'with integrity'

Jeremy Pruitt is out as Tennessee’s football coach, ending one of the worst tenures in program history. Pruitt's teams suffered embarrassing losses throughout his three-year tenure, but he was toppled by a recruiting scandal that also cost two assistants their jobs and could cause serious ramifications for the program for years.

UT announced Monday it fired Pruitt for cause amid an ongoing investigation that Chancellor Donde Plowman said revealed evidence of sweeping and serious NCAA violations under Pruitt’s watch that some football staff went to great lengths to conceal.

Athletics director Phillip Fulmer also will depart, but Plowman emphasized it was Fulmer’s decision to step aside and that he is not tied to the investigation. Fulmer will remain on the job until his successor is hired. The next AD will hire Pruitt’s replacement.

WHAT IT MEANS:Tennessee football's violations were Level I and/or Level II 

The university expects the actions of Pruitt and staff members he oversaw will result in multiple NCAA Level I and/or Level II violations. Plowman called the amount of malfeasance "stunning," based on the number of people involved and number of incidents.

“None of us wanted this for our program,” Plowman said in an exclusive interview Monday with Knox News. “The scope of the actions should indicate to you that the number of violations is significant, and the number of people involved (is significant) — and deliberate efforts to conceal these activities from our compliance office.”

Because Pruitt was fired for cause, the university will not pay a $12.6 million buyout he would have been due if fired without cause.

Pruitt, who was notified Monday he was being fired, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Pruitt, 46, compiled a record of 16-19, including a 3-7 mark in 2020 against a conference-only schedule.

He becomes the first Tennessee football head coach to be fired for cause.

“Based on what we know and the counsel we’ve gotten, it is clear that Coach Pruitt did not adequately promote an atmosphere of compliance or monitor it,” said Plowman, who became chancellor in July 2019.

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Also fired for cause Monday were assistant coaches Brian Niedermeyer and Shelton Felton, along with seven members of the football program’s recruiting, player personnel and support staff. Like Pruitt, Niedermeyer and Felton will not be paid buyouts. The other staffers were at-will employees not entitled to severance.

Niedermeyer worked three seasons as an assistant under Pruitt, and Felton joined the staff before this season.

“I’m unflinching about integrity,” Plowman said, “and we’re going to run our football program with integrity.”

Pruitt's attorney, Michael Lyons of the Dallas-based firm Lyons & Simmons, called the firing "an orchestrated effort to renege on contractual promises made to Coach Pruitt," in a statement to Knox News.

"The timing of the University’s actions and decision appear to be preordained and more about financial convenience and expediency than a fair and complete factual determination by the University," Lyons wrote in his statement.

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Fulmer hired Pruitt in December 2017 in his first move as AD, and he awarded him a contract extension in September.

Tennessee will begin an AD search with the help of Parker Executive Search.

Kevin Steele will serve as Tennessee’s acting head coach.

The Vols hired Steele last week as a defensive assistant. Steele is a UT alumnus who was on the roster for two seasons under Johnny Majors before serving as a Vols assistant in the 1980s.

Steele coached Baylor from 1999-2002, and he has been a defensive coordinator at four SEC schools, most recently Auburn.

Plowman plans for Tennessee's next AD to hire a coach before the 2021 season.

Plowman said Fulmer is stepping down because he wanted the next athletics director to have the opportunity to hire the football coach. Fulmer is under contact through 2023 after receiving a two-year contract extension in May.

“Phillip, again, I think he’s demonstrating why he’s a legend at UT,” Plowman said. “He loves this university, and he will serve this university in whatever way we ask him to. I’m grateful to him and his family — just the way they’ve embraced UT forever.

“I really, really, really want to underscore that there’s nothing about this that indicated Phillip knew about anything. None of this had anything to do with him.”

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Violations are major, tied to recruiting

The investigation is specific to Tennessee’s football program, and the alleged violations are related to recruiting.

“There were very deliberate efforts to conceal, falsify what was happening out of that recruiting office,” Plowman said. “We don’t have these problems in any other sport.”

Pruitt's contract includes more than 30 fire-for-cause provisions, and his termination letter says he violated six of them. 

Among them:

• The termination letter, signed by Plowman and Fulmer, states that Pruitt engaged in conduct likely to result in the NCAA finding Pruitt responsible for a Level I or Level II rules violation.
• The university expects that Level I and/or Level II violations will emerge from conduct by Niedermeyer, Felton and other staffers and that these violations stemmed from Pruitt's material neglect or lack of reasonable preventive compliance measures.
• The university concluded Pruitt failed to promote and maintain an atmosphere of compliance and failed to monitor the actions of coaches and staff members who report to him.

“We put integrity first," UT System President Randy Boyd said. "If you can’t win the right way, you don’t belong here.”

Lyons said in his statement that he and Pruitt plan to defend against "any allegation that he has engaged in any NCAA wrongdoing, as well as examining the University’s intent to disparage and destroy Coach Pruitt’s reputation in an effort to avoid paying his contractual liquidated damages."

A successful defensive coordinator at Florida State, Georgia and Alabama, Pruitt showed shortcomings as a CEO of a program. This was his first head coaching opportunity at any level.

Tennessee’s offense ranked among the SEC’s worst throughout his tenure, and Pruitt and his staff failed to develop quarterbacks.

W.H. Britton and Derek Dooley are the only Tennessee coaches since World War I who compiled a worse overall winning percentage than Pruitt. Britton went 4-5 in 1935, his lone season, and Dooley went 15-21 from 2010-12.

Plowman, though, said Pruitt’s firing pertains to the investigation’s findings, rather than his on-field performance.

“That’s really a decision by the athletic director,” Plowman said about a firing related to on-field performance, “and, generally, if he thought that was a good idea, he would have done that prior to now. This is all about what we’ve uncovered in this investigation.”

Plowman said that, on Nov. 13, her office received a credible verbal allegation of potential NCAA violations occurring within the football program, and UT’s general counsel began an investigation.

The university retained lawyers Mike Glazier and Kyle Skillman to assist with the investigation. The Kansas-based lawyers from Bond, Schoeneck & King are considered experts at representing universities during college athletics investigations.

UT’s outside counsel and NCAA enforcement staff interviewed Pruitt for about seven hours on Thursday, presenting evidence and giving him an opportunity to respond. Pruitt had a lawyer present for that interview.

BSK lawyers updated Plowman and Fulmer on their findings on Friday, and Plowman said she was “taken aback by the scope of” the investigation and that the findings “indicated a significant number of serious NCAA rule violations.”

Tennessee has not announced self-imposed penalties, a probable next step.

“At every step, we’ve tried to do this the right way,” Plowman said. “While we’re disappointed in what we found, we’re not going to hide it from anyone. Eventually this will all come out when this investigation is over. You’ll see all the specific issues.”

Failures on the field as well as off

Pruitt’s teams encountered significant issues on the field, too.

Tennessee went 0-9 against Alabama, Florida and Georgia, including eight losses to those rivals coming by more than 20 points. He came under criticism in October after he claimed following a 31-point loss to Alabama that the Vols were closing the gap with the Crimson Tide.

Just as damaging were losses in games Tennessee is expected to win.

The Vols opened the 2019 season with a 38-30 loss to Georgia State, a 26-point underdog from the Sun Belt Conference that had gone 2-10 the previous season and received $950,000 to play in the game. The loss began a 2-5 start to the season.

Pruitt’s woes in 2020 started in earnest with a 34-7 loss to Kentucky on Oct. 17. It marked Tennessee’s first home loss to the Wildcats since 1984.

Pruitt also lost to Vanderbilt in the 2018 finale, preventing Tennessee from making a bowl game, and he lost this season to Arkansas and its first-year coach, Sam Pittman.

The Vols enjoyed a few high moments under Pruitt, too. They beat ranked foes Auburn and Kentucky during his inaugural season. Those would remain his only victories against Top 25 opponents during his tenure.

Tennessee closed the 2019 season by rallying to a 23-22 victory over Indiana in the Gator Bowl, and UT announced Pruitt’s contract extension two days before the start of the 2020 season. The contract extension added two years to Pruitt’s deal and included a raise set to begin this year and an increased buyout.

"I'm excited that this extension gives Jeremy the runway to continue to build on the momentum and energy we have around our football program coming out of last season," Fulmer said in a September news release announcing that deal.

"He has made excellent progress entering just his third year and clearly realizes there is much work still to be done. This extension secures him to continue his efforts to return our program to a championship level and shows our commitment to him, his staff, this team and the future of the Tennessee Volunteers.”

Butch Jones remains the only Tennessee coach to last more than three seasons since Tennessee ousted Fulmer in 2008. Lane Kiffin bolted after the 2009 season for Southern California. Dooley was fired amid his third season. Jones was fired during his fifth season.