Jeremy Pruitt out at Tennessee/Recruiting Violation investigation

[goodnterribles]

All are logical candidates except Fickell. If I were him, I wouldn't touch this job right now. He can do much better.

Freeze make sense from a coaching and location standpoint (started his coaching career at a high school in Memphis), but I'm not sure a program dealing with NCAA violations can go that route.

If I were Tennessee's AD, I would go after Malzahn. Good success at Auburn, including 3 wins vs. Saban.

The problem with Malzahn is they just hired Kevin Steele at $800k a year, and he and Malzahn do not particularly care for each other. To get rid of Steele, Tennessee would have to eat the full $800k from what I heard today. I have to think they hired Steele with the idea that he will become the HC.

 

[SWVAHusker]

So, Tennessee just fired a coach for rules infractions and they are considering Freeze? Just LOL. I’d go with Herman of those listed.

UT's not necessarily considering Freeze. ESPN just listed a bunch of coaches who they thought might be interested in the job. Freeze actually got a new deal from Liberty that runs through the 2026 season that reportedly pays him $2 million a year. IMO Freeze is absolutely nuts if he leaves for a school like Tennessee where he doesn't have previous ties. He's pretty much a god in Lynchburg, and Liberty's got more money to put into their football program than any G5 school in the country. There's no way they're ever going to be admitted into the SEC or ACC, but they do have the financial resources to compete with those schools.

 

[HuskerNash]

The problem with Malzahn is they just hired Kevin Steele at $800k a year, and he and Malzahn do not particularly care for each other. To get rid of Steele, Tennessee would have to eat the full $800k from what I heard today. I have to think they hired Steele with the idea that he will become the HC.

Steele has already been named interim head coach and may get a look or get them through 2021. Word is the Hugh Freize has no shot due to his past issues. Nothing will get done until they hire the new AD.

 

[joncarl]

What about the rest of the staff, the assistants? Are some of them in trouble as well?

 

[SWVAHusker]

The problem with Malzahn is they just hired Kevin Steele at $800k a year, and he and Malzahn do not particularly care for each other. To get rid of Steele, Tennessee would have to eat the full $800k from what I heard today. I have to think they hired Steele with the idea that he will become the HC.

Not so sure about that. According to a story posted about an hour ago, UT's not given Steele permission to fill vacancies on the staff.

Tennessee interim coach Kevin Steele reportedly not yet cleared to make assistant coaching hires for the Vols

Don't expect Tennessee to be making any coaching hires anytime soon.

www.saturdaydownsouth.com

 

[SWVAHusker]

Steele has already been named interim head coach and may get a look or get them through 2021. Word is the Hugh Freize has no shot due to his past issues. Nothing will get done until they hire the new AD.

Good thing for Freeze that "past issues" aren't a problem for Liberty. Their AD is the guy who presided over the mess at Baylor.

 

[WestTexasHusker]

Not knowing if probation may be coming? Might steer many away.

I think they will get bitch slapped pretty hard. The NCAA likes to use struggling programs as their whipping boys.

 

[HuskerNash]

Good thing for Freeze that "past issues" aren't a problem for Liberty. Their AD is the guy who presided over the mess at Baylor.

Wow, didn't know that.

 

[SWVAHusker]

What about the rest of the staff, the assistants? Are some of them in trouble as well?

ILB coach Brian Niedermeyer and OLB coach Shelton Felton were both fired for cause alongside Pruitt. They're also missing a DL coach because Pruitt fired the guy during the season and OL coach because Will Friend left for South Carolina (and then promptly left South Carolina for Auburn before ever coaching a game there.)

 

[True Husker]

Steele has already been named interim head coach and may get a look or get them through 2021. Word is the Hugh Freize has no shot due to his past issues. Nothing will get done until they hire the new AD.

Would be funny if their president and chancellor just spent time in the media saying UT is “all about ethics” at the conference after they fired Pruitt, and then they hire Freize? I agree, not a chance.

 

[Blue Howl]

Interesting fact - - The UT Chancellor who fired Pruitt, Donde Plowman, was at Nebraska for 9 years before she took the Tennessee job in 2019.

About the Chancellor - Office of the Chancellor

Donde Plowman has served since 2019 as chancellor of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the state’s flagship land-grant research university.

chancellor.utk.edu

Plowman returned to Rocky Top last year after nine years at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where she served most recently as executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer. In that role, she oversaw academic affairs, student affairs, the Office of Research and Economic Development, and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. She earlier served for more than six years as the James Jr. and Susan Stuart Dean of UNL’s College of Business Administration.

 

[Blue Howl]

Pat Forde, the smirking, arrogant elitist, has written an all-too predictable, insult-riddled hatchet job about this where he seems to be absolutely gleeful that Tennessee is having problems.

Tennessee's Yield to Its Fans Comes to Embarrassing End

In 2017, Vols fans were thrilled they thwarted plans to hire Greg Schiano and landed Pruitt instead. Boy, has that backfired.

www.si.com

Flush with revolutionary fervor, Tennessee fans were very busy congratulating themselves on Dec. 1, 2017.

On that day, former hero football coach Phillip Fulmer had been installed as athletic director after backstabbing John Currie out of the job. In the days leading up to that event, Volunteers fans incited by a barking media personality with a fanboy interest in the program had gone full vigilante to undercut Currie’s attempted hire of former (and future) Rutgers coach Greg Schiano. What ensued was a clown show that left Tennessee as the laughingstock of college athletics, but UT backers believed they had triumphed by putting administrative know-nothing Fulmer in charge of a search that eventually settled on the unproven Jeremy Pruitt.

 

[joncarl]

Pat Forde, the smirking, arrogant elitist, has written an all-too predictable, insult-riddled hatchet job about this where he seems to be absolutely gleeful that Tennessee is having problems.

Tennessee's Yield to Its Fans Comes to Embarrassing End

In 2017, Vols fans were thrilled they thwarted plans to hire Greg Schiano and landed Pruitt instead. Boy, has that backfired.

www.si.com

Mr. Forde is typical of the media. While I understand getting information out to the public, he seems to revel in getting people worked up, creating divide and selling magazines/getting web traffic. He always seems to want to just stir the pot get everyone upset then step back and watch what he created. I have no use for this guy, he is not worth reading or listening too. Sorry.

 

[HuskerNash]

Pat Forde, the smirking, arrogant elitist, has written an all-too predictable, insult-riddled hatchet job about this where he seems to be absolutely gleeful that Tennessee is having problems.

Tennessee's Yield to Its Fans Comes to Embarrassing End

In 2017, Vols fans were thrilled they thwarted plans to hire Greg Schiano and landed Pruitt instead. Boy, has that backfired.

www.si.com

I am in Nebraska Alum and fan first but since I live in Tennessee I follow the Vols closely. There is nothing he is saying that isn’t true. Tennessee fans rival Nebraska fans in their passion and our recent histories certainly mirror each other. Both went back to a former legend to replace bad leadership and both find themselves lingering in mediocrity. Our similarities are almost scary.

 

[Blue Howl]

I am in Nebraska Alum and fan first but since I live in Tennessee I follow the Vols closely. There is nothing he is saying that isn’t true. Tennessee fans rival Nebraska fans in their passion and our recent histories certainly mirror each other. Both went back to a former legend to replace bad leadership and both find themselves lingering in mediocrity. Our similarities are almost scary.

Undoubtedly true, but does it warrant excessive mockery and dripping disdain from a national publication?