Josh Heupel says Jeremy Pruitt investigation being behind Tennessee is 'huge' for state of the program

The Tennessee Volunteers are coming off of a strong 2022 season, their best season under head coach Josh Heupel. When Heupel inherited the program, things were a mess, and the program was in disarray as they dealt with an NCAA investigation into former head coach Jeremy Pruitt. But they have since closed their investigation, and now the Volunteers can look towards the future. Recently, Heupel addressed the significance of the investigation closure to the Tennessee football program.

“The NCAA stuff being behind us, it’s huge for us as a program. As much as anything, on the recruiting side of it,” said Heupel. “I said that probably a week ago at media days as well. As far as how I’m different or what’s different about the program, we got 2 1/2 years of built-up trust and chemistry with your staff and your players. But at the end of the day, how we approach and how I approach every single day, it’s not any different.”

In 2021, Pruitt and nine other Tennessee football employees were promptly let go after it had surfaced that the program had committed numerous recruiting violations. As a head coach, it was Pruitt’s responsibility to report the recruiting violations promptly to the NCAA, but he failed to do so. As a result, Tennessee was fined $8 million, had to vacate wins, was put on probation, and was issued a list of other punishments.

With a resolution to the investigation set in stone, Heupel can now focus on the main thing he was hired to do — be the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers. As he continued, the Volunteers head man went on to highlight how this year’s team is different from last year’s.

“This is a highly competitive game. You got great players and coaches that we’re going to be going against all fall long. You got to reset and go earn it every single day. So we have a real sense of urgency inside of our program that starts with me — a sense of competitiveness and drive. At the end of the day, there were a lot of great moments last year. None of that stuff comes with us. Last year there were a lot of goals that we didn’t reach. This groups been really intentional about pushing forward and putting ourselves in a position to go chase some of those things.”

With the investigation closed, Heupel can now focus comfortably on developing his program for years to come. During the years that the program was under investigation, it makes sense that some players were weary of joining a program that could potentially find itself on a bowl ban or, worse, for a few seasons. Now, going forward, in terms of recruiting, there is nothing standing in Tennessee and Heupel’s way of becoming one of the best programs not only in the SEC but in college football as a whole.