REPORT: Tennessee Vols manager reveals negative news on key player…..

Why Jeremy Pruitt cited George Floyd and Alabama cash in Tennessee NCAAF.

Jeremy Pruitt said the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation’s racial reckoning after the murder of George Floyd and empathy led him to gift $300 in a Chick-fil-A bag to Tennessee player’s mom.
Pruitt, who received a lengthy show-cause penalty after the Tennessee NCAA investigation, admitted to handing out cash, albeit in smaller amounts. He said he self-reported at least two payments.
Pruitt also said his penchant for four- and five-figure ATM withdrawals wasn’t unusual because he also had wads of cash on hand in Alabama.

Former Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt fought NCAA allegations to the end and lost, but now his words from the case have surfaced.

Documents obtained by Knox News through open records requests reveal what Pruitt told investigators in the early days of the NCAA probe in January 2021 and his response to allegations in November 2022.

When asked whether he violated NCAA rules, Pruitt referenced George Floyd, COVID and mental health. He also said players’ moms accused him of things he didn’t do in order to protect their sons from sanctions.

Pruitt was given a six-year show-cause penalty Friday for his part in the recruiting scandal that included 18 highest-level violations and 200 individual infractions. Seven of his former UT assistant coaches and staff members also received multi-year show-cause orders.

[ Tennessee beat writer Adam Sparks and Knox News are leading the conversation on the Vols’ NCAA violations case under Jeremy Pruitt. Sign up for Sparks’ text group today to get exclusive access to his reporting ]

A show-cause penalty means a university cannot hire a coach or recruiter without being subjected to penalties during the length of the ban unless the NCAA signs off. Pruitt’s show-cause is an effective ban. It includes a 100% suspension for the first year of employment should an NCAA school hire in him in any athletics position.

Pruitt declined a Knox News interview request when reached by phone after the NCAA decision Friday. But his words in the case file say quite a bit.

Here are notable items from Pruitt’s interview with investigators and his formal response to allegations, neither of which had been made public.

George Floyd on Pruitt’s mind when he paid player’s mom
Pruitt said he thought about racial inequity and the high-profile killings of Black people when he gave a player’s mother $300 in a Chick-fil-A bag.

It was August 2020 during the COVID shutdown.

Pruitt said a player’s mother showed up in the parking lot outside the UT football complex in tears because of financial hardship. She told him she had nowhere else to turn for money to pay her bills.

“Then you throw in George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, okay, so you sit there as a white man and you see all of this going on and you can see these kids suffering,” Pruitt said.

“… (It’s) pitiful when you sit in a room and you hear grown men, and I’m talking about our coaches too, when they talk about growing up and the circumstances that they’ve been under, because it’s hard for a white man to understand, right.”

Pruitt defended its actions to investigators for giving the mother $300.

“I would do it again because I don’t think it’s breaking the rules (based on what would’ve been available through UT’s Student Assistance Fund if not for the pandemic),” Pruitt said. “I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve got little kids, and I hope one of these days when I’m dead and gone that somebody does the right thing for them.”