Former Tennessee soccer coach Jeremy Pruitt, his wife and several members of his soccer staff provided approximately $60,000 in improper gratuities and enlistment inducements to more than two dozen recruits and their families over a three-year period, according to an allegation release from the NCAA. a copy of which was obtained from Sports Illustrated through a public records request.
The 51-page document, sent to the school on Friday, details 18 separate allegations of flagrant misconduct in the recruitment process by Pruitt and his staff, dating back to September 2018, his 10th. All allegations are Level I and are deemed to be the most egregious on the NCAA scale of violations.
In the most serious allegations, Pruitt and his associates hosted at least six prospects and their families on nine unofficial weekend visits during the year-long death, providing them with housing, meals, transportation, household goods and even furniture totaling $12,000. Pruitt himself is accused of making cash payments of $3,000 and $6,000 to the mothers of two potential clients, the first of which was used to help with medical bills and the other for a down payment on a vehicle.
FORDE: Vols fans got their money’s worth. Now the chickens have come home to sleep.
Tennessee fired Pruitt for cause in 2021 and failed to pay his $12.6 million buyout.
Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel via Imagn Content Services
In all, Pruitt and seven staffers face violation charges, all of whom were fired in January 2021 after an internal university investigation uncovered alleged wrongdoing. The list includes defensive coordinator Derrick Ansley, outside linebackers coach Shelton Felton, inside linebackers coach Brian Niedermeyer, director of player staff Drew Hughes, director of recruiting Bethany Gunn, assistant director of recruiting Chantryce Boone, and a student assistant whose name is removed from the report became .
The ninth person charged with violations, Pruitt’s wife Casey, allegedly made cash payments from at at least $13,000 to recruits and their families. Casey once worked in NCAA Rules Compliance at Troy University, her alma mater and in the state of Florida.
Up to 12 UT athletes who received improper benefits attended more than 60 games, the document said. These athletes played while they were “ineligible,” the NCAA says. The number of players and games is not clear due to redaction.
Despite the 18 Level I violations — one of the highest totals in recent years, considering LSU received eight Level 1s in March — the university was not hit by the “lack of institutional oversight,” largely because of its transparency and integrity in promptly dealing with the misconduct, NCAA documents say. The institution showed strong cooperation with NCAA investigators, conducted its own thorough internal investigation, and took immediate steps to fire staff and sanctioned itself. The university docked 12 football scholarships last season and issued several other recruitment penalties, so Sources told SI.
“Receiving our notice of allegations was an anticipated, necessary step in this process — a process that our university has proactively initiated through firm and transparent actions,” Tennessee athletic director Danny White said in a statement Friday. “This brings us one step closer to a final solution. Up to this point I cannot discuss the case in detail. As a university, we understand the need to take responsibility for what happened, but we remain committed to protecting our current and future student-athletes.”
UT’s internal investigation included more than 100 interviews. Former NCAA investigator Michael Glazier and the law firm Bond, Schoeneck & King assisted in the investigation.
The NCAA’s 18-month investigation ends at an interesting time in the collegiate sports industry. While the NCAA is making many changes, including an overhaul of the violation process, athletes will be compensated through name, likeness and likeness deals that offer benefits similar in many ways to those listed in the allegations release. Tennessee has one of the largest and most ambitious booster-led collectives in the country, although the school is not affiliated with it.
Tennessee’s investigation, cooperation and response, led by White and his new staff, should be “the standard” in such investigations, NCAA documents say. White took over from retiring Phillip Fulmer in January 2021, days after Pruitt and his staff were fired. One of his first moves was hiring Josh Heupel from Central Florida. Heupel won seven games in his freshman year and signed the 18th-best class in the country. The 2023 Vols class is currently in seventh place.
Tennessee has 90 days to respond to the allegations and is not expected to contest the charges. Given UT’s own response and the revised NCAA violation procedure, the university is in a strong position to avoid potentially the harshest sanctions.
The NCAA is in the final stages of enacting an overhaul of violation guidelines with a penalty structure that is less focused on post-season suspensions. The intention is to avoid penalties that would hit players who were out of school when the violations occurred, with the penalties being more focused on those who are specifically guilty, such as: B. Trainer.
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Under the NCAA’s new penalty structure, Pruitt risks being followed by sanctions to other jobs if he ever gets another in collegiate sports. The NCAA holds him primarily responsible for the alleged violations, saying he failed to demonstrate and encourage an atmosphere of compliance and to properly supervise his employees.
Nine of the 18 allegations involve Tennessee trainers or staff providing additional benefits to recruits and their families, many during unofficial visits to campus. Seven of the allegations separately charge each employee with violating the NCAA’s “ethical conduct,” three of which (Gunn, Niedermeyer and Felton) provided false or misleading information to investigators at the university and the NCAA, documents say.
The last two allegations blame Pruitt for failing to fulfill his duties as head coach and the university for failing to oversee its football program. Neither Fulmer nor any other athletic administrator at the time of the alleged misconduct were named in the report. Fulmer hired Pruitt.
Casey Pruitt arranged for representatives to give a recruit’s mother a tour of Knoxville-area tenements.
Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel, Knoxville News Sentinel via Imagn Content Service
Pruitt and his wife were hands-on, allegedly paying recruits and their families together more than $25,000 in cash, according to the allegations. Casey Pruitt also arranged for representatives to show a recruit’s mother rental homes in the Knoxville area and provided a prospective buyer with $1,600 for a deposit and the first month’s rent. She also paid $12,000 in rent payments to a prospect or his family. Employees, including Jeremy Pruitt, paid seven current soccer players $1,300 to host potential clients during the dead period.
During the COVID-19 recruitment dead-time, NCAA vice president of enforcement Jon Duncan issued a warning to schools that recruitment would be aggressively investigated during this time. He followed up nine months later with a statement that said, in part, “Enforcement understands the importance of these behaviors and we are actively addressing them to ensure fairness for schools that are abiding by the rules.”
For Pruitt and his associates, the perks went well beyond cash — they paid for hotel rooms, some at Knoxville’s Crown Plaza, plane tickets, dozens of meals, and more. In one allegation, trainers delivered $500 worth of varsity clothing to potential clients under the guise of a parking garage. In another, employees paid $225 for family nail salon treatments. During an unofficial visit, trainers took prospects and family members on a fishing trip that included a meal at Knoxville’s famous Calhoun’s restaurant, and trainers spent $175 on a prospect’s family meal at the Dead End BBQ.
On at least two occasions McDonald’s employees spent $225 on prospects and their families even though the fast-food bags contained only groceries and no cash, TV and radio host Dan Patrick incorrectly reported. Employees also bought Chick-fil-A breakfasts for recruits.
During his three years in Knoxville, Pruitt was hailed as an elite recruiter, having worked among the best – Nick Saban in Alabama and Kirby Smart in Georgia. His two full signing classes in 2019 and 2020 finished 13th and 11th nationally. However, the Volunteers only went 16-19 in his three seasons and won just three games in his senior year. The school fired him for cause and refused to pay his $12.6 million severance package. Pruitt’s attorney, Michael Lyons, threatened to sue if the school failed to reach an agreement with his client. So far no lawsuit is known.
Pruitt is believed to have retired from coaching after a year on the New York Giants coaching staff. Pruitt and other employees were fired when the Giants fired head coach Joe Judge last January.
It is believed that none of the other employees listed in the NCAA document are in the ranks of the college. Ansley, who spent two stints under Saban in Alabama, is now the Los Angeles Chargers defensive backs coach. Hughes is the Jaguars’ human resources director. Felton is a coach at Valdosta High School in Georgia and Niedermeyer is a defensive coordinator at IMG Academy in Florida. Gunn and Boone’s employment status is not clear.
The allegations come 11 years after an NCAA investigation found serious violations by basketball coach Bruce Pearl that caused the school to fire him. He received a three-year show cause sentence. The same investigation found then-coach Lane Kiffin and his staff committed 12 secondary violations over a 10-month period. The school imposed self-imposed probation and recruitment sanctions in basketball and football.
Pearl and Kiffin are both back in the SEC. Pearl is in Auburn and Kiffin is in Ole Miss.
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