[ad_1]
The University of Tennessee fired Jeremy Pruitt, its head football coach, and nine other staff after the school investigated whether the program violated NCAA recruiting rules, the school said. school Monday.
The layoffs will take effect on Tuesday.
In November, the university opened a joint investigation with a law firm, Bond, Schoeneck & King, to determine whether the football program violated NCAA rules when recruiting candidates for its team, finding that “Coach Pruitt was not meeting the university’s expectations to promote an atmosphere of compliance and / or monitor the activities of coaches and staff reporting to him.
Among the licensees were assistant football coaches Brian Niedermeyer and Shelton Felton, four on-campus recruiting staff of the football team, the director and deputy director of football players’ personnel and a quality control coach soccer.
“What is so disturbing, as the scale of these actions shows, is the number of violations and the people involved and their efforts to conceal their activities from our compliance staff and sports department leaders,” he said. said Donde Plowman, the chancellor of the school. in a press release. “Despite a strong culture of compliance in our sports department, we need to look for ways to further strengthen our processes.”
Tennessee informed the NCAA of the violations and the university opened its own case in December, Plowman said at a press conference Monday. She did not cite specific violations, because the school’s investigation and the NCAA case are ongoing, but said there was likely a “significant number” of Level I and II violations. . Level I violations are considered “serious” conduct offenses, including fraud and unethical behavior that signals a “lack of institutional control”. Level II is considered “important”.
Pruitt, 46, was hired in December 2017 and had a record of 16-19 in three seasons. He went 3-7 this year as Tennessee played exclusively in its league, the Southeastern Conference, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The university, demanding a dismissal for cause, will not pay Pruitt any of its buyout estimated at 12.6 million dollars; nor will he pay Niedermeyer or Felton for their buyouts.
In one declaration Released Monday evening, Pruitt’s attorney Michael Lyons said the nature of the dismissal showed the university’s efforts to get rid of him without paying for the buyout despite minimal evidence that Pruitt had violated NCAA regulations. Lyons claimed that in a private meeting between Pruitt and Plowman, Plowman said that “there was no evidence Coach Pruitt was actively involved in any alleged violations or knew they were happening. Lyons also said Pruitt received the dismissal letter three hours after Plowman said no employment decision had been made.
“The timing of the University’s actions and decision appears to be predetermined and more a matter of convenience and financial expediency than a fair and complete factual determination by the University,” Lyons wrote.
He added that he would defend Pruitt against any violation he is accused of by the NCAA and will examine whether the university intended to “denigrate and destroy Coach Pruitt’s reputation” to cancel payments owed to him for a release. regular.
Several currents and former Tennessee players and former players have posted their surprise at Pruitt’s dismissal on Twitter.
“Crazy,” wrote defensive tackle Omari Thomas.
“Why,” wrote quarterback Brian Maurer.
University athletic director Phillip Fulmer has also announced that he will retire as soon as the school finds him a replacement. Fulmer, 70, came out of retirement in 2017 to supervise track and field at the Knoxville, Tennessee school on a “short-term” basis, according to the announcement. The university said the search for Fulmer’s replacement would begin immediately and the new athletic director would hire the new football coach.
“Our next football manager has to be on the sidelines for 10 years or more, and he will have to know who his sporting director will be for the duration,” said Fulmer. “It makes sense that I make this decision now, so that a new coach and a new athletic director can implement their vision together.”
Plowman said Fulmer was not involved in any of the potential recruiting violations. Pruitt’s dismissal means Tennessee will hire their fifth different full-time coach since Fulmer quit coaching in 2008.
Kevin Steele, the team’s new defensive assistant, will be the interim head coach.
“It is very unfortunate in the sense that we are going to have to work very hard to prevent it from pushing us back,” Fulmer said at the press conference.
[ad_2]
Source link