Tennessee Fire Football Coach Wealthy Investigation

The University of Tennessee fired Jeremy Pruitt, its head football coach, and nine other school staff members after an investigation into whether the program violated NCAA recruiting rules, the school Announced Monday.

Firangi came into force on Tuesday.

In November, the university launched an investigation in collaboration with a law firm, Bond, Shonek & King, to determine whether the football program broke NCAA rules when recruiting candidates for its team, finding that “Coaches did not meet Pruitt University’s expectations. Promote an environment of compliance and / or monitoring of the activities of coaches and staff who report to them.”

Among those fired were Brian Niedermeyer and Shelton Felton, four members of the football team’s on-campus recruitment staff, football player personnel director and assistant director, and a football quality control coach.

School Chancellor Donde Plowman said, “The disturbances that have occurred according to the scope of these actions have included attempts to conceal the number of violations and their activities from our compliance staff and from athletic department leaders.” In a news release “Despite a strong compliance culture in our athletic department, we must seek ways to further strengthen our processes.”

Tennessee informed the NCAA about the violation, and the university opened its case in December, Plowman said at a news conference on Monday. She did not cite specific violations, as both the school’s investigation and the NCAA’s case are ongoing, but said there were likely to be “significant numbers” Level I and Level II Violation Level I violations are considered violations of “serious” conduct, including fraud and immoral conduct indicating a “lack of institutional control”. Level II is considered “important”.

Pruitt, 46, was hired in December 2017 and held a 16–19 record in three seasons. He went 3–7 as Tennessee this year and played exclusively in his league, the Southeastern Conference, among the coronovirus epidemics.

The university, claiming the cause-related shootings, will not pay Pruitt any purchases of his estimated $ 12.6 million; It will also not pay Niedermeyer or Felton their purchase.

In Statement Released on Monday night, Pruitt’s attorney, Michael Lyons, said the nature of the shootings showed an effort to get rid of the university without paying a buyout despite minimal evidence that Pruitt violated NCAA rules. Lyons claimed that in a private meeting between Pruitt and Plowman, Plowman stated that “there was no evidence that Coach Pruitt was either actively involved in any of the alleged violations or knew that they were occurring Were.” Lyons also said that Plutman said Pruitt received a termination letter three hours after the employment decision was not made.

“The timing of the university’s actions and decisions appears to be preordained and is more about financial convenience and faster than fair and complete factual determination by the university,” Lyons wrote.

He said he would defend Pruitt against any infringement imposed by the NCAA and look into whether the university intended to “tarnish and destroy Pruitt’s reputation,” so that they would pay for regular payments. Can do.

Many current and Former Tennessee player And former players posted to Twitter their surprise of Pruitt’s firing.

“Mad,” wrote Defensive tackle Omari Thomas.

“Why,” wrote Quarterback Brian Maurer.

The university’s athletic director, Philip Fulmer, also announced that he would retire as soon as he was informed of his replacement from school. Fulmer, 70, came out of retirement in 2017 to oversee athletics at the school in Knoxville, Tenn., According to the announcement. The university said the search for a replacement for Fulmer would begin immediately and the new athletic director would appoint a new football coach.

“Our next football coach needs to stay on the sidelines for 10 years or more, and they need to know what period their athletic director will be for.” “It only makes sense that I take this step now, so a new coach and a new athletic director can implement their vision together.”

Plowman said that Fulmer was not involved in any possible recruitment violations. Pruitt’s firing meant that Tennessee would hire its fifth different full-time coach since he ceased coaching in 2008.

Kevin Steele, the team’s newly hired defensive assistant, will serve as interim head coach.

“It is very unfortunate in the sense that we have to work really hard to prevent it from being set back,” Fulmer said at the news conference.