Tennessee fired football coach Jeremy Pruitt to explain the motive on Monday, ending his tenure after three seasons, compiling a 16-19 record and leaving a program under investigation for alleged NCAA recruitment violations.
Here is a review of the chronology of the key moments of the Pruitt era.
October 13, 2018
Sophomore Jarrett Guarantano had a career day, completing 21 of 32 passes for 328 yards and two touchdowns to lead Tennessee to a 30-24 win over Auburn. It was SEC Flight’s first win in 11 games and the first win over a SEC West opponent since 2010.
After the game, Guarantano grabbed the ball from the game, which was awarded through Pruitt, and greeted Tennessee enthusiasts as he went out through the tunnel.
In statements to journalists, Guarantano held back tears.
“It meant the world,” Guarantano said, “Last year, this year was very difficult, it just means a lot.
I didn’t know much at the time, but the worst was yet to come.
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November 24, 2018
The possibility of making a bowl with a win opposite Vanderbilt, also fighting for bowl eligibility, and the urgency to avoid a three-game waste streak against a state rival for the first time since the 1920s have been enough to feed. Tennessee.
It wasn’t.
Flights came flat and Vanderbilt was leading 17-0 at half-time. In what has become an issue of Pruitt’s mandate, little was done at half-time to counter the opposition. The Commodores beat Tennessee 21-6 in the last quarter with a 38-13. Victory.
“It’s pretty simple. The team won today,” Pruitt said, to which flight enthusiasts would get used to hearing over the next two seasons.
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November 29, 2018
Harrison Bailey stood at a table, surrounded by his early family, and extended his arms to the crowd, wearing an orange Tennessee hat on his head. While “Rocky Top” sounded on the speakers of the Marietta High Auditorium, Bailey’s teammates added existing Tennessee Open Receiver Ramel Keyton, held.
Catch Bailey, a recruiting trick for Pruitt’s staff. Bailey, considered a thin man from Michigan for a long time. Bailey pointed to the Vols in 2020 as the third professional-style quarterback at the 247Sports Composite, fitting the top-ranked quarterback to point out with UT since Guarantano in 2016.
Harrison Bailey’s announcement #GoVols ? through: _VR2_ pic. twitter. com/3wkujuvs7G
Even more impressive, the Vols got Bailey’s commitment as an offensive coordinator, while Tyson Helton had left two days earlier to take up the position of head coach in western Kentucky.
“If you know anything about me, I like to build things,” Bailey told 247Sports when he signed up. “I like to take a program that is rarely very where you want to be and take it where it is. I like to build things around me. I like to be the one. I need that responsibility.
A booming exclusive elegance for 2019 flights
February 6, 2019
Darnell Wright’s five-star offensive version opened a jacket to reveal an orange Tennessee blouse in a signaling rite at his best school, which fit the top-rated rookie to point to UT since Kahlil McKenzie in 2015. To ‘o To’ or also pointed to Tennessee.
“I love what Coach Pruitt is doing there,” To’o To’o told ESPN in his signature rite in California.
Reaching two coveted contenders on National Signature Day allowed Tennessee elegance to rank 13th at 247Sports Composite.
Wright joined Wanya Morris’ offensive take-off to give flights two five-star clients in the class, and Pruitt proved Tennessee would remain one thing on the recruiting route.
August 31, 2019
Georgia State won a $950,000 payout check to embarrass Tennessee in a surprisingly disappointed 38-30 at Neyland Stadium, a result that presented a sign of early caution from Pruitt’s tenure.
“Stunned, ” said Nigel Warrior, deep in Tennessee after the game.
Flight fans too.
Georgia State was 2-10 last season, being the group’s first opponent of five to beat Tennessee since Wyoming in 2008.
The most disturbing thing is that defeat seemed no coincidence. The Panthers stired Tennessee’s defense, exhausted trench flights, and made enough key saves to win without wanting to laugh.
“The team won today’s game,” Pruitt said.
October 1, 2019
When UT police arrested Flight supporter Jeremy Banks in a traffic prevention in September 2019 with an ongoing court order for not appearing in court for a traffic subpoena, it did not appear to be a major case.
Then the police video went public. It showed banks defying officials and profphemas continuously. At one point, while handcuffed and talking to a woman on a trip with UTPD, Banks said: . I’m from Memphis, Tennessee. “
Police allowed Banks to call Pruitt twice, who did not understand why the police would arrest Banks just because there was an arrest warrant for him.
One officer explained that he was legally obliged to arrest the banks because of the court order.
“These are the dumbest I’ve ever noticed in my life,” Pruitt told the officer in the phone conversation. “I get it. I get it. I’ve worked in four positions and I’ve never had that way unless I’m here. Because other people often say, “Hey, something’s wrong here. “
“Moving forward, do your civic duty, man, ” Pruitt later in the conversation.
The incident was news.
Pruitt expelled the program’s banks later that month after a separate public incident. He solved the banks the following August.
October 19, 2019
Tennessee covered near Alabama’s fourth baseline with the chance to score and be tied against the country’s top-ranked team. Tennessee summoned a ground game with an intelligent locking system, creating a big gap in Alabama’s defensive line. Ball carrier Quavaris Crouch has had a single touchdown.
Instead, Guarantano has become a thug and threw an impromptu stealth of the quarterback into the air.
Supporter Shane Lee swept the ball with his hands, Trevon Diggs retrieved it and returned his prize to more than a hundred yards for the ultimate touchdown, a 14-point swing.
Pruitt attracted national attention with his livid reaction to Guarantano’s loose ball, which ripped off the quarterback’s mask and gave him a verbal bandage.
Isn’t the coach satisfied? Pic. twitter. com/9e5XEbJr35
Pruitt said of the fumble: “We put in some smart combination training and rolled the ball at will there. I wish I could have realized we got the ball in there and see what we could have done. “
January 1, 2020
Pruitt’s season ended with a six-match winning streak, a poignant rally at the Gator Bowl. The Vols regained a kick in the game in the last quarter, erased a two-point deficit and beat Indiana 23-22 in Jacksonville, Florida.
The accumulated lesions of a start 2-5.
“It’s this 2019 team. We never gave up,” To’o To’o said after the victory in the bowl. “Every time things get complicated, we have more strength. “
The triumph sent the flights to the positive off-season about their long career under Pruitt. Athletics director Phillip Fulmer, feeling satisfied after the winning streak at the end of the season, said on a recruitment occasion in February: “Flights are back!
Fulmer granted Pruitt a contract extension, an expected construction and a purchase of the upd construction in September.
Smart times didn’t last and Jacksonville turned out to be the pinnacle of the Pruitt era.
October 17, 2020
The 10-year-old sophomore when Kentucky last beat Tennessee at Neyland Stadium on November 24, 1984, advances the 36-year stopwatch and now has the difference of being the first coach since Johnny Majors to lose to Kentucky at home. .
That’s not it, but Kentucky’s 34-7 beating of the unventilated Vols takes the palm as the Wildcats’ biggest margin of victory in the series since 1935.
“He’s killing me right now just thinking about it,” Tennessee liniero Trey Smith said. “The fact that Al Wilson came here to communicate with us, this functionality is taking me aside right now. I’m disappointed in everything and it will”. be a soul this week, look who I am as a leader and as a player”.
It’s the catch of the moment in a six-game loss streak, matching the longest in the show’s history.
October 24, 2020
Pruitt channeled his predecessor, Butch Jones, when he presented a ridiculous Tennessee calendar over Alabama after a 48-17 home defeat to Crimson Tide.
“The hole is closing,” Pruitt said after Tennessee’s fourteenth direct defeat in the series. “It probably wouldn’t look like the scoreboard today, but the hole is narrowing. “
He also described the Flights as champions of life or applauded his “five-star heart. “
In the country, Tennessee in disarray. The flights gave Crimson Tide 587 yards, days after Pruitt fired his defensive line coach, Jimmy Brumbaugh.
The loss dropped Tennessee to 0-8 against rivals Alabama, Florida and Georgia, coming from at least 3 touchdowns. Flights would move to 0-9 opposite this trio after a loss to Florida in December.
December 19, 2020
The flights ended their third season Pruitt with a groan, falling 34-13 to Texas A
During the attack opposing the Aggies, it was learned that Pruitt’s program was under investigation. Knox News later showed that the University of Tennessee was investigating the football program after receiving allegations of recruitment violations and benefits not eligible for athletes.
January 18, 2021
Tennessee fired Pruitt for justifiable cause, two months after an investigation into alleged violations of NCAA recruitment. As a justifiable dismissal, the university will pay Pruitt the purchase of $12. 6 million to which he would have been entitled if he had been rejected for no reason.
Blake Toppmeyer covers football from the University of Tennessee. Send an email to the blake. toppmeyer@knoxnews. com and stay with him on Twitter at btoppmeyer. If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, a virtual subscription will give you access to all of this. Current subscribers can click here to enroll in The Blake Subscribers Text Group that provides Football Flight updates and analytics.