Ex-Tennessee Coach Jeremy Pruitt Hired As High School Assistant, P.E. Teacher

It’s been quite the fall from grace for the former Tennessee coach.

Ex-Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt has landed a job as a high school P.E. teacher and assistant football coach at his alma mater Plainview High School in Rainsville, Ala., according to a report from AL.com.

Pruitt will also coach junior high basketball, according to principal Chris Clark. The DeKalb County Board of Education officially approved Pruitt’s hiring on Thursday morning.

“He’s a hometown hero,” Clark told AL.com. “His kids have gone to school here. He’s a great teacher, he’s a great coach. He was the most qualified person for the job. We’re lucky to have him.”

It will be quite the family affair for the Pruitt’s at Plainview. Pruitt’s wife, Casey, was hired at the school last month as a reading/math intervention teacher.

Additionally, Pruitt will coach under his dad, Dale Pruitt, who was hired for his third stint as the school’s head coach last season. Jeremy Pruitt was fired at Tennessee in January 2021 as the NCAA investigated the school for multiple violations. The NCAA issued Pruitt a six-year show-cause penalty and one-year suspension earlier in July. The ruling makes it difficult for Pruitt to coach in college athletics during the time of the discipline. Tennessee went 15–19 in three seasons prior to his firing.

Pruitt spent 2021 with the Giants in the NFL, but did not coach last season.