Jim Knowles and Rodney Garner (Pruitt hire) are the only reason Josh Heupel still has a job at Tennessee..
Plus Heupel's BFF is the damn AD.
Heupel was lucky he inherited Pruitts players.. Darnell Wright, Cade Mays, Jerome Carvin, Hendon Hooker, Jaylen Wright, Jalin Hyatt, Cedric Tillman, Velus Jones Jr
And on defense Byron Young, Alontae Taylor, Theo Jackson, and many more are in the NFL
Darnell Wright is the best RT in the NFL... Byron Young is one of the top 3 best young Edge Rushers in the NFL..
That's what Heupel inherited..
Pruitt had those kids as only freshman and sophomores. Then covid happened.
Heupel inherited a gold mine of talent..
Imagine if Pruitt had stayed and they didn't lose Eric Grey, Wanya Morris, Henry To'o To'o, and many others...
And Pruitt had that 2022 Tennessee instate class on lock..
โข Walter Nolen (1st round pick at DT)
โข Ty Simpson (top 15 pick at QB)
โข Barion Brown (elite WR)
โข Isaiah Horton (future 1st round pick at WR)
โข Jordan James (elite RB)
Was ALL coming to Tennessee for Pruitt. Ty Simpson is on record saying it's true and Simpson was recruiting the other kids.
Plus Pruitt had OT A. Mims (1st round pick) heading to Tennessee before the investigation happened, then they had to back off..
We would have had Kevin Steele as DC, Rodney Garner as D Line coach, already signed by Pruitt and Auburn was paying their salaries.
Ty Simpson's dad, Jason Simpson, was coming from UT Martin to be the Tight Ends coach and that was totally legal.
Joe Osovet would have switched to WRs, because he could evaluate and recruit. Tee Martin just sat in his office all day sleeping, because he was Fulmers golden child, and Fulmer let him get away with anything..
We was switching to a spread offense in 2021, before Pruitt got booted. They actually was implementing it in Spring of 2020, and covid shut them down.. unlike other schools, Tennessee went by the rules during covid and wasn't practicing like UGA and Bama...
Because Pruitt knew he'd get fired for breaking protocol.. so they didn't practice and only had like 15 practice days or less to get ready for the season. So they Had to stick with the 2019 play book.. they didn't have the practice time to implement an entirely new offensive scheme.
But in 2021, it was gonna be a Spread Offense, that's why Pruitt went and signed Hendon Hooker..
Niedermayer and Tee Martin ratted out Pruitt, because Pruitt wasn't extended their contracts, and Tee Martin wanted Pruitt's job..
That's exactly what happened. 100% facts..
Tee Martin was the one who leaked that Tennessee was being investigated to his buddy from Mobile, Alabama at Fan Run Radio.
They was gonna get any Auburn kid they wanted on defense in the transfer portal..
ANYONE could have won with that kind of talent. Just let Hendon Hooker do his thing..
Tennessee would have won 10+ games in 2021, regardless of the HC.. and would have been National Championship contenders in 2022.. thats how good Hendon Hooker was and how legit the team was built..
Jeremy Pruitt would have owned the transfer portal. It was already in the works. Just trust me on that..
Here's really why Pruitt got fired :
Tennessee wanted Fulmer gone because he came in a got rid of all of the Haslam people and they never liked Fulmer because they felt like he stabbed Johnny Majors in the bad and took his job. The media never forgave Fulmer for that, even with a national championship..
Pruitt didn't know that Fulmer ratted on Alabama in the late 90s, to get them on probation so Tennessee and Florida could be the top dogs in the SEC..
Fulmer cheated the entire time he was at Tennessee. You think Peyton Manning or Jamal Lewis came to Tennessee for free?
I was a kid and saw John Henderson's vehicle at the dorms, he had gold rims on a Cadillac..
Tee Martin got a free car and much more..
Nobody ever told on Fulmer..
Then they let Lane Kiffin have college girls be "escorts" to recruit and have sex with players to get them to come to Tennessee.. and Tennessee never reported it.
Then Butch Jones came in and they let him buy a top 3 signing class two years in a row and pay to get Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara..
Nobody told on Butch..
But Tennessee told on Pruitt to the NCAA to get rid of Fulmer.. Pruitt was the scapegoat.
After Pruitt didn't bend the rules in his first signing class, Fulmer gave him the green light to build Tennessee just like Bama..
They thought if they brought down Pruitt, then it would connect to Saban but that didn't happen...
EVERYONE was paying kids to play or buying them cars..
Tennessee is the only school in history to get put on probation for Telling on Themselves..
It was covid. The NCAA had their offices closed. It was open season because everyone knew that the Transfer portal rule was getting passed in July of 2021..
All Pruitt did was promise kids what they Would get, when the bill got passed. And paid for a few hotel rooms, and a players moms medical bill that came to him crying that she was denied medical treatment bc of outstanding owed money..
He just did the right thing and helped her out.. And thats what he was busted for? The McDonald's/ Chick Fil-A bag of money was to help a players mom get seen by a doctor..
We all owe Pruitt and his staff an apology.. And I should write a book on it..
Any former UT players or coaches are free to back me up on that. I'm sure the NDA is ran out on not speaking out about it..
Pruitt and the rest of those coaches didn't deserve that.. Pruitt really didn't do anything wrong..
Niedermayer went rogue and broke every rule imaginable, bc he knew he was about to lose his job and he would do anything to keep it.
And that's why Niedermayer will never coach in CFB again, because everyone with inside knowledge knows what him and Tee Martin did. #FreePruitt
Everybody "hates the 24-team playoff" but why? It at least makes 6 useless bowl games have some meaning now and teams are still going to be fighting to keep losses to less than 3. The regular season argument is moot because the "every game is life or death" ended a few years ago.