Tennessee head football coach Jeremy Pruitt has been fired, according to multiple reports, after an investigation into potential recruiting violations in the program. Additionally, Tennessee Athletic Director Phillip Fulmer also plans to retire, according to multiple reports.
Pruitt was fired for cause Monday for alleged NCAA violations under his watch meaning the university will not have to pay his buyout. Pruitt lasted just three seasons in Knoxville, compiling a record of 16-19 including a 3-7 mark in 2020 against an SEC-only schedule.
Okay, you get to make the hire at Tennessee, who ya got? Jeremy Chadwell at Coastal and Hugh Freeze at Liberty have to be the leading candidates. Both would come, I believe. Who would you hire?
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) January 18, 2021
We knew it wouldn’t come long: Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze being linked to this job opening. This is the fourth SEC head football coaching position to come available this offseason, and Freeze has been tied to most of them, particularly at South Carolina and Auburn.
Hugh Freeze is 18-6 in his two seasons at Liberty, including a program best 8-0 mark to begin the 2020 season before the Flames finished the season at 10-1 following the team’s win over Coastal Carolina in the Cure Bowl. The Flames have also been ranked in both major college football polls for the first time in school history this season. Liberty finished the 2020 season ranked No. 17 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, the highest ranking in school history.
“I want to do the best job I can where my feet are planted and that is loving and building this place that I’m at right now,” Freeze stated during the 2020 season when his name was mentioned as a candidate at South Carolina. “I’m very blessed to be here. All that I have peace about right now is sitting right in front of me here on this mountain. I’m thankful for it. They were more than gracious to me and my family. That goes a long way with me.”
One story that will be told repeatedly during this coaching search, especially if Freeze is a serious candidate, is the one from when Freeze and wife Jill snuck into an empty Neyland Stadium in Knoxville in 1992, promising his wife he would one day be the head coach of an SEC football team. Of course, Freeze has achieved that dream, as he was the head coach at Ole Miss from 2012-16.
