Ex-Tennessee head football coach Jeremy Pruitt is back working in Alabama after being fired from leading the Volunteers for committing major recruiting violations.
Per a report by Paige Dauer of WVLT, CBS's Nashville affiliate, Pruitt has been hired as a physical education teacher at Plainview High School in Rainsville.
Tennessee fired Pruitt after the 2020 season. The coach received a six-year show-cause penalty for NCAA recruiting violations he and his staff committed while he led the program.
The NCAA named 18 violations and around $60,000 worth of cash and gifts that Pruitt, his wife and staff gave to recruits, players and their families.
As part of the NCAA's punishment, the Volunteers were forced to vacate 11 wins under Pruitt.
In returning to Rainsville, Pruitt is coming to where he starred in high school and coached under his father, Dale. Pruitt's father is in his third stint as head football coach at Plainview High School. The elder Pruitt coached Plainview from 1984-2000, 2006-2014 and returned in 2022.
After high school, Jeremy Pruitt went to Middle Tennessee and then later transferred to Alabama, where he played defensive back for the Tide.
In his rise up the coaching ranks, Pruitt was an assistant on the Hoover "Two-A-Days" squad. He went on to join Alabama as director of player development and later defensive backs coach. After serving as a defensive coordinator at Florida State and Georgia, Pruitt returned to Alabama for his third stint to lead the Tide's defense.
He was then named the head coach at Tennessee before the 2018 season and fired in 2020 after an internal investigation uncovered recruiting violations.
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