Jacksonville State football given NCAA permission to hire Jeremy Pruitt as an analyst
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Jacksonville State football has been given permission to hire former Alabama defensive coordinator and Tennessee football head coach Jeremy Pruitt as a “limited, non-coaching analyst role within the football program.”
Jacksonville State football announced that they were given permission by the NCAA to hire Pruitt on Friday. The committee only modified the show cause for Pruitt’s employment at Jacksonville State.
“We appreciate the Committee’s thorough and thoughtful review of our proposal and its acknowledgment of Jacksonville State’s commitment to compliance and institutional control. Our goal from the beginning was to operate with transparency and integrity, and we’re pleased that the NCAA recognized the strength of our monitoring plan. Coach Pruitt understands the expectations that come with this opportunity, and we’re confident he will fully align with the high standards we maintain at Jax State,” Seitz said.
Pruitt is still serving a show cause for his involvement in the recruiting scandal at Tennessee during his time as head coach. Due to that, Jacksonville State had to send a letter to the NCAA stating intentions to hire Pruitt. That letter, dated June 12, laid out the reasonings why the university was trying to hire the embattled coach. Jacksonville State cited the ability to get Pruitt on staff, for a cheaper rate, is an opportunity it wouldn’t normally be able to provide for its student-athletes.
During his weekly press conference Oct. 25, Gamecocks coach Charles Kelly expressed his support for trying to hire Pruitt.
“He is one of the best defensive minds I have ever been around in college football. He’s been out of coaching four years now, so I did look into when I first got here of the opportunity to bring him on in some capacity,” Kelly said. “Let me say this: here at our university, we’re about compliance; we do things the right way. There’s a process that you have to go through in order to make hires.”
Pruitt has been spending the 2025 season as an assistant coach at his alma mater Plainview High School in Rainsville, Alabama, under his father Dale. He has been an assistant there since 2023.
Maxwell Donaldson covers high school sports, Jax State athletics, the outdoors in Alabama and more for the Gadsden Times. Find him on Twitter/X @_Max_Donaldson and contact him at MDonaldson@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Jax State football given NCAA permission to hire Jeremy Pruitt
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