A former Alabama soccer assistant who was the Crimson Tide’s defensive coordinator for 2 seasons, together with their 2017 nationwide championship season, is suing the NCAA.
Former Tennessee Volunteers head coach Jeremy Pruitt is claiming $100 million in misplaced 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 Degree I violations that spanned over 200 particular person infractions when Pruitt was head coach at Tennessee, the NCAA dominated again in 2023.
Within the latest lawsuit, first obtained by Yahoo Sports activities final week, Pruitt alleges that the NCAA conspired with Tennessee to make Pruitt a “sacrificial lamb.”
Pruitt claims that the violations throughout the program preceded his time as head coach, which started with the 2018 season after then-Volunteers athletic director — and longtime Alabama arch-enemy — Philip Fulmer employed him in December 2017. Pruitt remained at Alabama by means of the rest of the 2017 season, which ended with the Crimson Tide’s fifth nationwide championship below Nick Saban.
A part of the go well with, as summarized by USA TODAY, states that Fulmer knew of the violations when Pruitt was employed, and that Fulmer advised Pruitt he would “deal with it” in coping with the college’s compliance division. Fulmer stepped down as Tennessee athletic director on the identical day Pruitt was fired for trigger in January 2021.
Pruitt joined Saban’s first Alabama teaching workers in 2007 as this system’s Director of Participant Growth. He later served as defensive backs coach from 2010-12 earlier than turning into Jimbo Fisher’s defensive coordinator at Florida State in 2013, and later defensive coordinator at Georgia below Mark Richt (2014-15). Pruitt returned to Alabama following the 2015 season to exchange Kirby Sensible as Alabama’s defensive coordinator.
After leaving Alabama, Pruitt posted a 16-19 report in three seasons at Tennessee, together with three losses to Saban’s Alabama groups: 58-21 in 2018, 35-13 in 2019, and 48-17 in 2020. All however 5 of Pruitt’s 16 victories as head coach had been later vacated
In Pruitt’s final sport as Alabama’s defensive coordinator, the Crimson Tide defeated the Georgia Bulldogs 26-23 on Tua Tagovailoa’s 2nd-and-26 game-winning landing move to DeVonta Smith in extra time at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for the nationwide championship.
