A former Alabama football assistant who was the Crimson Tide’s defensive coordinator for two seasons, including their 2017 national championship season, is suing the NCAA.
Former Tennessee Volunteers head coach Jeremy Pruitt is claiming $100 million in lost wages stemming from his firing in January 2021, and a subsequent six-year show-cause penalty handed down by the NCAA Committee on Infractions in 2023.
The firing and show-cause penalty arose from 18 Level I violations that spanned over 200 individual infractions when Pruitt was head coach at Tennessee, the NCAA ruled back in 2023.
In the recent lawsuit, first obtained by Yahoo Sports last week, Pruitt alleges that the NCAA conspired with Tennessee to make Pruitt a “sacrificial lamb.”
Pruitt claims that the violations within the program preceded his time as head coach, which began with the 2018 season after then-Volunteers athletic director — and longtime Alabama arch-enemy — Philip Fulmer hired him in December 2017. Pruitt remained at Alabama through the remainder of the 2017 season, which ended with the Crimson Tide’s fifth national championship under Nick Saban.
Part of the suit, as summarized by USA TODAY, states that Fulmer knew of the violations when Pruitt was hired, and that Fulmer told Pruitt he would “handle it” in dealing with the university’s compliance department. Fulmer stepped down as Tennessee athletic director on the same day Pruitt was fired for cause in January 2021.
Pruitt joined Saban’s first Alabama coaching staff in 2007 as the program’s Director of Player Development. He later served as defensive backs coach from 2010-12 before becoming Jimbo Fisher’s defensive coordinator at Florida State in 2013, and later defensive coordinator at Georgia under Mark Richt (2014-15). Pruitt returned to Alabama following the 2015 season to replace Kirby…
Source link : https://rolltidewire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/crimson-tide/football/2025/04/01/alabama-football-nick-saban-assistant-jeremy-pruitt-tennessee-sues-ncaa/82758801007/
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Publish date : 2025-04-01 20:47:00
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