Revisiting the highs and lows of the Jeremy Pruitt era as Tennessee football coach
Tennessee fired football coach Jeremy Pruitt for cause Monday, ending his tenure after three seasons. He compiled a 16-19 record and leaves behind a program under investigation into alleged NCAA recruiting violations.
Here's a look at a timeline of key moments during the Pruitt era.
Jeremy Pruitt provides hope with upset
Oct. 13, 2018
Sophomore Jarrett Guarantano had a career day, completing 21 of 32 passes for 328 yards and two touchdowns to lead Tennessee to a 30-24 upset victory against Auburn. It was the Vols' first SEC win in 11 games, and first win against an SEC West opponent since 2010.
After the game, Guarantano clutched the game ball, awarded to him by Pruitt, and waved to Tennessee fans as he exited through the tunnel.
When speaking with reporters, Guarantano fought back tears.
“It meant the world,” Guarantano said. “Last year, this year has been very rough. It just means a lot.”
Little did he know at the time, but the worst was yet to come.
JEREMY PRUITT'S RESPONSE:Coach's lawyer says firing was 'orchestrated effort' by Tennessee
WHO REPLACES PRUITT? 14 candidates for Vols' next football coach
WHO REPLACES FULMER? Top candidates for Vols' next athletics director
Vanderbilt spoils the party
Nov. 24, 2018
A chance to make a bowl game with a win against Vanderbilt, also fighting for bowl eligibility, and the urgency to avoid a three-game losing streak to an in-state rival for the first time since the 1920s should have been enough to fuel Tennessee.
It wasn't.
The Vols came out flat, and Vanderbilt led 17-0 at halftime. In what became a theme of Pruitt's tenure, little was done during the half to counteract the opposition. The Commodores outscored Tennessee 21-6 in the fourth quarter of a 38-13 victory.
“It’s pretty simple. The best team won today," Pruitt said, something Vols fans would get used to hearing over the next two seasons.
PRUITT'S MOST NOTEWORTHY QUOTES:One quote from Jeremy Pruitt's Tennessee football tenure rings true: 'Titanic'
Bailey chooses Vols over Michigan
Nov. 29, 2018
Harrison Bailey stood behind a table, surrounded by his immediate family, and held his arms wide toward the crowd, orange Tennessee hat on his head. As "Rocky Top" blared over the speakers in Marietta High's auditorium, Bailey's teammates, including current Tennessee wide receiver Ramel Keyton, celebrated.
Nabbing Bailey was a recruiting coup for Pruitt's staff. Bailey had been considered a long-time Michigan lean. Bailey signed with the Vols in 2020 as the No. 3 pro-style quarterback in the 247Sports Composite, becoming the highest-ranked quarterback to sign with UT since Guarantano in 2016.
Even more impressive, the Vols landed Bailey's commitment without an offensive coordinator, as Tyson Helton left two days earlier to fill the head coach vacancy at Western Kentucky.
“If you know anything about me, I like to build stuff," Bailey told 247Sports when he committed. "I like taking a program that is not where he needs to be and taking it to where it should be. I like building stuff around me. I like to be the one. I want that responsibility.”
A flourish tops Vols 2019 signing class
Feb. 6, 2019
Five-star offensive tackle Darnell Wright unzipped a jacket to reveal an orange Tennessee shirt during a signing ceremony at his high school, becoming the highest-rated recruit to sign with UT since Kahlil McKenzie in 2015. Hours later, four-star linebacker Henry To’o To’o also signed with Tennessee.
“I just love what Coach Pruitt is doing down there,” To’o To’o told ESPN during his signing ceremony in California.
Landing two coveted prospects on national signing day allowed Tennessee’s class to finish 13th in the 247Sports Composite.
Wright joined offensive tackle Wanya Morris to give the Vols two five-star prospects in the class, and Pruitt showed that Tennessee would remain a factor on the recruiting trail.
Georgia State stuns UT in opener
Aug. 31, 2019
Georgia State received a $950,000 paycheck to embarrass Tennessee in a stunning 38-30 upset at Neyland Stadium, a result that offered an early warning sign about the Pruitt tenure.
“Flabbergasted,” Tennessee safety Nigel Warrior said after the game.
So were Vols fans.
Georgia State had gone 2-10 in the previous season. It became the first Group of Five opponent to beat Tennessee since Wyoming in 2008.
More troubling was that the loss didn’t feel like a fluke. The Panthers befuddled Tennessee’s defense, wore down the Vols in the trenches and made enough key stops to win without the need for funny business.
“The best team out there won the game today,” Pruitt said.
‘Go ahead. Do your civic duty, man.’
Oct. 1, 2019
When UT Police arrested Vols linebacker Jeremy Banks during a traffic stop in September 2019 on an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in court for a traffic citation, it didn’t seem like a major deal.
Then the police video became public. It showed Banks challenging the officers and repeatedly using profanities. At one point, while handcuffed and speaking to a woman on a ride-along with UTPD, Banks said: “Where I’m from, we shoot at cops. I’m from Memphis, Tennessee.”
Police twice allowed Banks to call Pruitt, who failed to comprehend why police would arrest Banks just because there was a warrant for his arrest.
An officer explained he was legally obligated to arrest Banks because of the warrant.
“This is the silliest s--- I’ve ever seen in my life,” Pruitt told the officer during the phone conversation. “I’ve got it. I understand. I’ve worked at four places and I ain’t ever had no crap like this except for here. Because the people usually say, ‘Hey, something’s not right here.’”
“Go ahead. Do your civic duty, man,” Pruitt said later in the conversation.
The incident made national headlines.
Pruitt dismissed Banks from the program later that month after a separate incident became public. He reinstated Banks the following August.
The facemask incident
Oct. 19, 2019
Tennessee lined up near Alabama's goal line on fourth down with a chance to score and come within one possession of tying the game against the nation's top-ranked team. Tennessee called a running play with a smart blocking scheme, creating a big hole in Alabama's defensive line. Running back Quavaris Crouch should have had an easy touchdown.
Instead, Guarantano went rogue and took to the air on an impromptu quarterback sneak.
Linebacker Shane Lee swatted the ball from his hands, Trevon Diggs scooped it up and returned his prize more than 100 yards for the final touchdown, a 14-point swing.
Pruitt gained national attention from his irate reaction to Guarantano's fumble, during which he yanked the quarterback's facemask and gave him a verbal dressing-down.
"It pissed me off," Pruitt said of the fumble. "We just put a great drive together and really ran the ball at will down through there. I would’ve liked to see us get the ball in there and seen what we could’ve done."
Vols rally to beat Indiana in Gator Bowl
Jan. 1, 2020
Pruitt’s second season ended on a six-game winning streak, including a stirring rally in the Gator Bowl. The Vols recovered a fourth-quarter onside kick, erased a two-score deficit and beat Indiana 23-22 in Jacksonville, Florida.
The finish salved the wounds from a 2-5 start.
“That was this 2019 team. We never let up. We never gave up,” To’o To’o said after the bowl victory. “Every time things got hard, we put on more steam.”
The triumph sent the Vols into the offseason feeling optimistic about their future under Pruitt. Athletics director Phillip Fulmer, perhaps feeling chesty from the season-ending winning streak, declared at a February recruiting event, “The Vols are back!”
Fulmer awarded Pruitt with a contract extension, a scheduled raise and an increased buyout in September.
The good times didn’t last, and Jacksonville proved to be the pinnacle of the Pruitt era.
First home loss to Kentucky in 36 years
Oct. 17, 2020
The second-year coach was 10 years old when Kentucky last beat Tennessee inside Neyland Stadium on Nov. 24, 1984. Advance the clock 36 years, and he now holds the distinction of being the first coach since Johnny Majors to lose to Kentucky at home.
Not only that, but Kentucky's 34-7 drubbing of the hapless Vols takes the cake as the Wildcats' largest margin of victory in the series since 1935.
“It’s killing me right now just thinking about it," Tennessee offensive lineman Trey Smith said. "Having Al Wilson come and talk to us, that performance is tearing at me right now. I feel disappointed in myself first and foremost, and it’s going to be a soul check this week, seeing who I am as a leader and as a player."
It was the second pitfall in a six-game losing skid, matching the longest in program history.
Pruit: Vols are closing gap with 'Bama
Oct. 24, 2020
Pruitt channeled his predecessor, Butch Jones, when he offered a ludicrous assessment of Tennessee’s program compared to Alabama’s following a 48-17 home loss to the Crimson Tide.
“The gap is closing,” Pruitt said after Tennessee’s 14th straight loss in the series. “It might not show on the scoreboard today, but the gap is closing.”
He might as well have described the Vols as Champions of Life or applauded their “five-star heart.”
On the field, Tennessee was proving to be a mess. The Vols allowed 587 yards to the Crimson Tide, days after Pruitt had fired his defensive line coach, Jimmy Brumbaugh.
This loss dropped Tennessee to 0-8 against rivals Alabama, Florida and Georgia, with each of those setbacks coming by at least three touchdowns. The Vols would move to a 0-9 against that trio following a loss to Florida in December.
Tennessee season ends in defeat amid internal investigation of program
Dec. 19, 2020
The Vols finished their third season under Pruitt with a whimper, falling 34-13 to Texas A&M. Each of Tennessee's seven losses in 2020 came by double digits.
During the game against the Aggies, news broke that Pruitt's program was under investigation. Knox News later confirmed that the University of Tennessee isinvestigating the football program after receiving allegations of recruiting violations and impermissible benefits to athletes.
Jeremy Pruitt fired for cause
Jan. 18, 2021
Tennessee fired Pruitt for cause, two months into an investigation into alleged NCAA recruiting violations. As a for-cause firing, the university will not pay Pruitt the $12.6 million buyout he would have been entitled to if he was fired without cause.
Blake Toppmeyer covers University of Tennessee football. Email him at blake.toppmeyer@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer. If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it. Current subscribers can click here to join Blake's subscriber-only text group offering updates and analysis on Vols football.