The University of Tennessee will hire Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremey Pruitt as the next head football coach, according to ESPN.
ESPN reported the following:
The University of Tennessee‘s circuitous head-coaching search, which has taken on just about every twist imaginable, is nearing an end, as the Volunteers are finalizing a deal with Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt, sources told ESPN.
Tennessee expects to announce Pruitt as its football coach on Thursday, and a press conference to introduce him is planned for later in the day. Sources told ESPN that Pruitt plans to stay on as Alabama’s defensive coordinator through the College Football Playoff, while pulling double duty as the Vols’ head coach and spearheading their recruiting efforts and putting together his staff at Tennessee.
There was a time when I honestly didn’t know if this coaching search would ever end. It went from Jon Gruden, to the Greg Schiano fiasco, to Mike Gundy, Dave Doeren, Mike Leach, the athletic director got fired and all hell had broken loose down in Knoxville.
It seems like that will all officially come to an end as of today. Hiring from under Nick Saban is never a terrible idea. He cultivates a winning culture, and logic would seem to dictate that his assistants know what they’re doing. The only risk here is that Pruitt only has been the Alabama DC for two seasons. That’s not exactly a ton of time. However, it would certainly seem like a much better option than some of the previous options.
It’s really too bad Tennessee actually got this figured out. I was having so much fun watching an SEC program implode.