Paul Finebaum makes prediction on Jeremy Pruitt's return to the sidelines

Paul Finebaum predicted Jeremy Pruitt’s return to a college football sideline in the near future, amid discussion of LSU’s sanctions from the NCAA.

That sparked the conversation about Tennessee’s case, which led to Pruitt’s departure from the school as head coach. But once those cases are resolved, Finebaum doesn’t see a long time until Pruitt works again.

He joined McElroy and Cubelic to explain.

“Well, it’s been going on for a while, right,” Finebaum said. “But that really, ultimately it came down to litigation and the NCAA started losing in court, same reason we got in NIL and they started losing on NCAA enforcement cases too. So the NCAA tried to come up with this IARP and all these other means, and they simply don’t work.

“And I think the most interesting case left on the board is Tennessee. And I think all of these indications are that Tennessee will come out of whatever it’s been in, better off.” 

Then, Finebaum made a prediction about Pruitt’s future as a coach in college football, once everything’s resolved.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jeremy Pruitt on a campus near you as an analyst within weeks,” Finebaum said. “Because I think ultimately he’ll be able to move back to the field as a coach because I think that’s where we are right now. And it’s a combination of not only what the the organization and how they feel, and I’m referring to the NCAA, but it’s everyone else.

“The people that have the power are the conference commissioners, and they just have too much else on the plate right now to be outraged by transgressions off the field.”

In July 2022, Tennessee received a Notice of Allegations regarding 18 violations against the program during Pruitt’s time at the helm. It included an allegation of $60,000 in cash or gifts given to football recruits or players by Pruitt, his wife, numerous coaches, staff and boosters. 

All 18 of the violations are Level I violations. Level I is the most severe infraction on the scale from one through four.

Former Vols inside linebackers coach Brian Niedermeyer, outside linebackers coach Shelton Felton, director of player personnel Drew Hughes and student assistant coach Michael Magness were handed three to five-year show-cause penalties as a result of a negotiated resolution.

A show-cause penalty means a school will have to present reasons to the NCAA why it wants to hire one of them to its staff during that time period.

What does it mean for Pruitt and his coaching future? It remains to be seen.

But Finebaum is quite confident the former Tennessee coach will work again, and soon.