The recruiting scandal that brought down Tennessee Volunteers head coach Jeremy Pruitt in 2021 took a strange turn Friday with a clarification of sorts.
A report at the time stated Pruitt gave money to an unnamed player’s mother in a McDonald’s bag. The Knoxville News set the record straight Friday. Pruitt gave the woman several hundred dollars in a Chic-fil-A bag, not a McDonald’s bag.
That clarification came as Tennessee issued a lengthy response to the NCAA’s notice of allegations involving 18 violations committed by Pruitt and his staff. The university received the notice in July.
Pruitt defended his move in providing the woman money by saying, “It was the human thing, the right thing to do.” The report suggests that he had already given the woman $3,000 to cover medical expenses.
Tennessee fired Pruitt, along with seven assistant coaches, in January 2021 in the wake of the scandal. Pruitt went 16-19 in three seasons in Tennessee.
The university disputed minor parts of five of the 18 Level-I violations the NCAA discovered. Yet Tennessee agreed with the bulk of the investigation. According to the Knoxville News, the investigation found that “almost $60,000 of cash or gifts were provided to players and their families by Pruitt, his wife and numerous coaches, recruiting staff and at least one booster.”