The Pruitt Chronicles, part three

Somehow, this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.

Tennessee athletics director Phillip Fulmer considered some eye-opening candidates to replace Jeremy Pruitt as Vols football coach before Pruitt was fired and Fulmer retired in January 2021, an internal university email shows.

Former UT quarterback Tee Martin, Auburn coach Hugh Freeze, Florida coach Billy Napier and South Carolina coach Shane Beamer were on his list of 16 potential candidates.

And so was a coach Fulmer called Alex French, whoever that is.

Knox News obtained the email through an open records request.

It contains additional revelations about Fulmer’s state of mind during the early stages of an investigation into NCAA major recruiting violations under Pruitt.

… In the email titled “Football Appraisal,” Fulmer argued that Pruitt should be retained as coach.

“I am not (at) all advocating a change in football and hope we do not get there with pending issues,” Fulmer wrote. “I do believe we can overcome our challenges, and I have seen signs of progress.”

Of course he did.  He was invested in the guy, having just given Pruitt a raise and extension.  To advocate cutting him loose would have reflected as badly on his own judgment as it would have on Pruitt’s.  It was simply easier to turn a blind eye to the recruiting shenanigans.

Yesterday, I snarked about Fulmer not getting hit with a show cause.  My sarcasm might have been misplaced, although it’s not like anyone’s about to hire the man for a college football job anyway, show cause or no show cause.  What a putz.

Not that I’m ungrateful for his leadership in Knoxville.

The Pruitt Chronicles, part two

Well, now, if you’re gonna cheat, why be subtle about it?

Tennessee football staff members under Jeremy Pruitt talked about cheating in brazen and sometimes profane ways, their text messages reveal. And they show that Pruitt was in the loop.

Knox News obtained those text messages through an open records request, and they show the extensive effort university leaders took independent of the NCAA to uncover the scope of the violations.

…Knox News reviewed approximately 6,000 text messages from Pruitt’s staff. They were gathered from seven cell phones, including university-issued phones and personal phones volunteered by cooperating members of the recruiting staff as part of the investigation that was ordered by Chancellor Donde Plowman.

The text messages show that UT staff members knew what they were doing was wrong and they knew it needed to be hidden.

The article goes on to list a top twelve texts, all of which are amusing to one degree or another.  My favorite of the dirty dozen is this one:

On Oct. 27, 2020, in the final days of the recruiting scandal, Pruitt’s coaches showed their hand.

Felton warned UT quality control coach Larry Harold not to send some unspecified information to his university-issued phone.

“Hey don’t text stuff like that to school phone,” Felton said.

Harold replied to the same phone number, presumably Felton’s work phone, with an acknowledgement of why Felton would make that request.

“Ain’t nothing we discuss need to be on that work phone. We trying to do some epic shit! Keep it street man,” Harold said to Felton.

That sounds straight out of the Stringer Bell school of management.

Without getting into the gory details, yes, we dodged a bullet in Athens with Pruitt, but only because someone tattled on him before he got going.

The Pruitt Chronicles, part one

King Midas in reverse:

Brian Niedermeyer spent a year brazenly violating NCAA rules while courting one of the prized recruits of the 2020 class, only to watch the prospect commit to Georgia.

The former Tennessee football assistant coach’s recruitment of Darnell Washington, a four-star tight end in the 2020 cycle, included a cash delivery in a parking lot and accompanying Washington’s family on a flight for his official visit to Knoxville.

The recruitment was detailed in the NCAA findings of UT’s rampant recruiting malfeasance under former coach Jeremy Pruitt on Friday.

Washington, who was drafted in April by the Pittsburgh Steelers, is not directly named in the NCAA findings. Knox News uncovered his identity through NCAA investigative documents that referred to him as “prospective student-athlete 9” and “prospect 4,” online sites that track college visits of prospective recruits, and a source with direct knowledge of the situation. The source spoke to Knox News about the recruitment on condition of anonymity.

NCAA findings, which Niedermeyer corroborated while negotiating a five-year show-cause order in February, showed the Vols’ recruitment was shady before Washington committed and enrolled at Georgia in January 2020.

Insert your “if McGarity were still AD, Georgia would have turned itself in for the recruiting infraction” joke here.

Seriously, this stirs up memories of the nineties when Goff had some dude in Florida paying recruits to come to Georgia who instead pocketed the money and wound up as Gators, anyway.  As I recall, Spurrier got some mileage out of that.

I doubt Kirby will do the same.  At least not in public.

The continuing adventures of fine for thee, not for me

Considering the source, this is rich (see what I did there?).

Seven Big 12 schools compete in states with recently updated NIL laws that might conflict with NCAA policy. Some Big 12 coaches call it a distinct competitive advantage and believe uniformity "needs to happen fast."@EricPrisbell reports: https://t.co/wwV69YS7w5 pic.twitter.com/489X9BdI6X

— On3 NIL (@On3NIL) July 14, 2023

You know the dude who got paid millions not to coach at Auburn would be among the first to scream bloody murder if anyone dared suggest a salary cap for coaches.  Not that he’s bothered by logic…

Georgia’s home away from home is staying put.

The conference may be expanding, but the SECCG isn’t going anywhere.

It looks like the SEC Championship game will remain in Atlanta for a good while longer. How much longer remains to be seen.

SEC officials confirmed Friday its intention to keep playing its ultra-popular conference title game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium beyond 2026, when the current contract expires.

“We’re actively engaged in discussions with Mercedes-Benz Stadium to extend our agreement to keep the SEC Football Championship game in Atlanta,” SEC spokesman Herb Vincent said. “Atlanta’s been a tremendous home for SEC football. Mercedes-Benz provides a tremendous atmosphere and we’re excited about our future in Atlanta.”

The SEC has conducted its football championship in Atlanta every year since 1994. However, other cities such as Nashville, Tennessee, which is opening a new stadium for the Tennessee Titans in 2026, have reached out to the league about possibly hosting future games. With the conference expanding to 16 teams in 2024 to include former Big 12 members Oklahoma and Texas, Dallas also reportedly is among other cities that have expressed interest in possibly hosting the SEC’s marquee in the future.

While offering the qualifier that one can “never say never,” Vincent emphasized that “our intent is to stay in Atlanta.” A formal extension has not yet been signed, however.

“Right now, that’s where our focus is,” Vincent said. “Atlanta is our home.”

“Right now” isn’t a sign of permanancy, but it’s better than Dallas… er, nothing.