Phillip Fulmer rewarded for being clueless of Tennessee recruiting scandal | Adams
Sometimes, ignorance is a great excuse. But don’t try convincing former Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt of that.
His defense for the avalanche of NCAA violations committed by his coaching staff was something like: “I had no idea what was going on.”
The NCAA didn’t buy his “I’m-too-clueless-to-punish” argument, perhaps because the scandal was so widespread even Pruitt’s wife and babysitter had an active role. The bill came due Friday.
UT was fined $8 million but escaped the dreaded bowl-ban penalty. Pruitt wasn’t as fortunate. He was given a six-year, show-cause penalty. So, any college administrator mentally impaired enough to hire him would have to get permission from the NCAA.
While Pruitt is thinking about his next career move, he must be wondering how the argument that failed him so terribly worked for the man who hired him, former Tennessee athletics director Phillip Fulmer.
Pruitt was fired for cause in January of 2021. That meant he wouldn’t get his $12.6 million buyout.
But his boss was cleared of any involvement in the vast array of recruiting violations. He wasn't punished for being unaware of the NCAA violations piling up in the school's most important sport. In fact, he was rewarded. He was allowed to “resign” with a $1 million-plus severance package.
Just call it a “gentle firing.”
There’s no way chancellor Donde Plowman would have allowed him to continue overseeing − or should I say, "overlooking" − the athletics department since he supposedly never got a whiff of the massive cheating venture that had occurred on his watch.
She surely wouldn’t have let him have a say-so in the next coaching hire. When you have Pruitt on your hiring resume, you don't get second chances.
Nonetheless, Fulmer was working on a list of possible Pruitt replacements before he was dismissed from the premises. Again, so unaware.
Why wasn't Fulmer given so much as a slap on the wrist for his negligence?
UT officials probably reasoned Fulmer wasn’t a real AD in the first place. He was just an old Tennessee football coach, whom former chancellor Beverly Davenport hired after firing John Currie when his search for a new football coach spun off course. You can be sure Fulmer pointed out Currie’s failings to Davenport, which raises another question: “Why was Davenport hired as chancellor?”
But you could ask as much about so many other failed UT administrators. Their incompetence makes the current leaders – Plowman, president Randy Boyd, and athletics director Danny White − look like superstars by comparison.
And Fulmer looks like someone who never should have been rehired. His legacy will suffer for it.
No Tennessee fan will forget that Fulmer led the Vols to an undefeated, national championship season in 1998. In the 25th anniversary of that championship, the memory seems sharper than usual.
ADAMS: Donde Plowman's bold move for Tennessee pays off. Jeremy Pruitt gets what he deserves
It’s also the 15th anniversary of his firing. Then-athletics director Mike Hamilton kicked Fulmer to the curb – with a huge severance package, of course – after the Vols went 5-7 in 2008 for their second losing season in four years.
Fulmer further damaged the program while masquerading as an athletics director. But he had an excuse for that.
He was still a football coach at heart. He liked to dress up like a coach, go to practice, blow a whistle occasionally and evaluate the offensive line − a position he once coached. Comfortable in the minutia of practice, he didn't notice the burgeoning crisis in the program he once led to a national title.
He wasn't a real AD.
John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: twitter.com/johnadamskns.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Phillip Fulmer rewarded for being clueless in his job as Tennessee AD
