18 violations, nearly $60,000 in illegal benefits by Tennessee Football under former head coach Jeremy Pruitt

The NCAA has charged the Tennessee football program with 18 alleged Level 1 rule violations, the most serious under its rules, for disallowed recruiting benefits totaling about $60,000 that was paid to prospects under the former coach. Jeremy Pruitt.

Among other allegations, Pruitt is accused of providing around $9,000 for the mothers-to-be of two. His wife Casey is accused of making 25 cash payments totaling around $12,500 to help a potential mother pay for her car.

In a notice of allegations sent to Tennessee, which fired Pruitt in January 2021 after its internal investigation into the allegations, the NCAA said it was not accused of a lack of institutional oversight because of its cooperation with NCAA investigators and its impartiality in deal with misconduct. to the university on Friday.

“At every step of this process, we take swift and decisive action that exemplifies the enduring values ​​of the NCAA that are affirmed in the new membership constitution,” Tennessee Chancellor Dondy Plowman said in a statement. “The university appointed an outside attorney to fully investigate the allegations about the football program, acted promptly to terminate the contract of football coaches and employees, and shared our findings with the NCAA enrollment team.”

The NCAA accused Pruitt of failing to foster an atmosphere of compliance and of failing to monitor its employees. Former defensive coordinator Derek Ansley, now supporting the Los Angeles Chargers head coach defensively; Former quarterbacks coach Brian Niedermayer, now IMG Academy’s defensive coordinator; Former probation linebacker Shelton Felton, now the head coach at Valdosta High School in Georgia, was also named in the alleged rule violations, along with his personnel director, director of recruitment and two other employees.

Pruitt did not demonstrate that he was monitoring his employees or promoting an atmosphere of compliance within the football program when at least a dozen of his employees were involved in more than 200 individual violations of NCAA law over a two-year period, as detailed in the claims. 1 to 9. . “As evidenced by the number of employees involved and the nature of the violations, J. Pruitt failed to demonstrate that compliance is a shared responsibility or set clear expectations that all coaches and employees are abiding by NCAA rules and failed to establish a program that include immediate reports of actual and potential issues to compliance personnel.”

The NCAA has accused Pruitt and his team of hosting six recruits and their families during a one-year fatality as the programs were unable to have on-campus recruiting activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The NCAA said volunteers received casual visits over nine weekends between July 2020 and November 2020, with free accommodations, meals, transportation and other benefits totaling $12,000.

Among the benefits allegedly offered to prospects were manicures and a trip on the Tennessee River in a student-athlete boat.

“Receiving notice of the allegations was an expected and necessary step in this process – a process that our university has proactively initiated through decisive and transparent action,” Tennessee Athletics Director Danny White said in a statement. “This brings us closer to a final solution. Until we get to this point, I can’t discuss the matter 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.”

Despite the large number of Level I violations, the NCAA application team chose not to accuse the university of lacking institutional oversight and even commended the volunteers for their cooperation during the investigation.

“Actions taken by the institution during the investigation shall be the standard for any institutional investigations into possible abuses,” the notice of allegations read. “During the investigation period, the Foundation demonstrated exemplary cooperation in a number of ways. Once the Foundation’s board was alerted to allegations of possible violations within the football program, the Foundation took swift action to investigate the allegations and establish the various violations.

Pruitt went 16-19 overall in Tennessee and 10-16 against SEC opponents. The Vols were 2-11 against AP opponents under Pruitt, who was in his first stint as head coach. Pruitt worked as a senior defensive analyst for the New York Giants in 2021.