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One year ago, Tennessee football fans learned the extent of Jeremy Pruitt’s recruiting scandal when Knox News published an avalanche of award-winning investigative stories.
It was July 14, 2023, when the NCAA put UT football on probation for five years as punishment for more than 200 violations committed under Pruitt, the fired Vols coach.
On the same day, Knox News published dozens of stories that dug much deeper into the scandal from 2,500 pages of documents obtained through public records requests.
The investigative coverage didn’t slow down for weeks.
That coverage earned national and state sports writing awards for UT beat writers Adam Sparks and Mike Wilson, including first place for breaking news from the Associated Press Sports Editors and top 10 for investigative sports journalism and beat writing. Sparks won the Tennessee Sports Writers Association awards for investigative and news writing for his coverage of the NCAA case.
One year later, here’s a look at the crazy behind-the-scenes details the Knox News investigation revealed.
Text messages by Tennessee staffers exposed cheating
Sparks reviewed approximately 6,000 text messages exchanged between Pruitt’s coaches and staff members over three years. They were eye-opening and sometimes comical.
When George Floyd, Chick-fil-A, babysitter entered conversation
Pruitt tried to tell his side of the story to investigators during the NCAA probe. He referenced George Floyd, COVID-19 and mental health. And bank records showed that Pruitt carried wads of cash dating back to his time coaching at Alabama.
Pruitt’s wife was also entangled in the scheme, including enlisting the Pruitts’ babysitter to give payments to recruits, investigators found. And things got weirder from there.
Recruits accepted gifts, then played for other SEC schools
Some marquee recruits were implicated…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/reliving-wild-jeremy-pruitt-scandal-090822375.html
Author : Knox News | The Knoxville News-Sentinel
Publish date : 2024-07-14 09:08:22
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