BREAKING: Tennessee hires Jeremy Pruitt as next head coach
At long last, Tennessee has its next head football coach.
After a well-publicized circus search, the Volunteers hired Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt on Thursday, per multiple VolQuest.com sources.
Sources say the contract is believed to around $4 million annually and Pruitt will be introduced later this afternoon in a formal press conference.
The renowned recruiter and savvy defensive assistant was pegged by new athletics director Phillip Fulmer to lead Tennessee’s turnaround, replacing Butch Jones, who was fired on Nov. 12.
Fulmer interviewed Pruitt on Monday in Dallas and then again Wednesday in New York. Pruitt, 43, has never been a head coach but served as the defensive coordinator on two championship staffs (Florida State in 2013, Alabama in 2016) and also engineered a pair of Top 16 defenses on a pair of 10-win teams at Georgia.
He was a Broyles Award Finalist as the nation’s top assistant twice and started his player career in the Volunteer State at MTSU. Under Pruitt, Alabama ranked No. 1 nationally in scoring defense, No. 1 in yards per play and No. 2 in total defense in 2017. Like Kirby Smart two years ago, Pruitt is expected to juggle both roles — Vols head coach and Alabama DC — during the Tide’s playoff run.
The hire completes a bumpy rollercoaster search for Tennessee that saw former athletics director John Currie ousted and replaced by Fulmer last Friday. Tennessee’s administration has been under fire for the way the entire process has been handled, starting with the Greg Schiano fiasco on Nov. 25.
Exactly two weeks after firing Jones, Tennessee was set to hire a former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach — only it wasn’t Jon Gruden. Once word leaked that Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano had been tabbed for the job, an outcry from alumni, fans, former players and politicians ultimately squashed the deal.
Later, former Vols offensive coordinator David Cutcliffee rebuffed Tennessee’s advances and then Mike Gundy turned down a reported $42 million deal to stay at Oklahoma State. Currie also flirted with Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm and N.C. State's Dave Doeren and Washington State’s Mike Leach before being replaced by Fulmer.
In the last few days, Fulmer reached out to a number of potential coaches and interviewed several candidates, including Georgia defensive coordinator Mel Tucker, SMU head coach Chad Morris and Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele.