NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Tennessee arrived at SEC Media Days Thursday to a crowd of Big Orange faithful, and with a sense of relief after escaping a postseason ban when the NCAA handed down sanctions last Friday for recruiting violations that occurred under former head coach Jeremy Pruitt.
The NCAA Committee on Infractions found more than 200 violations, including 18 level-one violations, committed by Pruitt and his staff. The question was how extensive the punishment would be for a program now entering its third season under Josh Heupel.
“I felt great that we were going to land where our administration thought we were going to land,” Heupel said Thursday. “But I found out it’s coming out the night before and at that point, yeah, you don’t know what you don’t know. So when we got the word the following morning it was a sense of relief.”
The NCAA placed Tennessee on five years probation and fined the school $8 million, but the penalties did not include a bowl ban which could’ve been demoralizing to players and fans and crippling to the program Heupel’s trying to build.
The Tennessee sanctions were a hot topic around SEC Media Days. Many believe the school was let off easy considering the magnitude of the violations. From a Tennessee perspective, it’s a testament to the cooperation shown by Chancellor Donde Plowman and new Athletics Director Danny White in the NCAA investigation.
“Our administration found out about it, reported it, welcomed the NCAA in to conduct their own investigation,” Heupel said. “They’ve been transparent from the very beginning. It would’ve been easy to take a bowl ban in year one when I first took the job. We were down to 65 scholarship players, no one knew what the season was going to look like. Our administration just didn’t think that was the right thing to do for our players that stuck around. It wasn’t the right thing to do.”
The Vols also likely benefited by self-imposing the loss of 16 scholarships over the past two seasons. The program will lose 12 more with Heupel and his staff forfeiting at least two scholarships per season over the five-year probation period.
“I don’t recommend anybody go through this,” Heupel said. “The deficit at which we took the field was real. To be honest, where we’re at today with five years to go we’ve been handling all these things at a higher percentage (of lost scholarships) than what we’re actually going to have to over the last five years (of probation).”
Most importantly, with the penalties now known the future is bright for Tennessee football. Heupel and his team are now free to go into fall camp focused on getting better as they try to build off last season’s 11-win, Orange Bowl championship campaign.
“I’m glad we came out with a verdict where our guys are going to have the opportunity to compete for all the things that you want to,” Heupel said. “You know, I think when (the sanctions) came out people just looked forward, but you better look back at the sanctions we self-imposed. That’s why I feel like as much of a climb as we had in the first 24 months, the trajectory of where we were and where we’re trying to go, I don’t think there’s ever been a better time to be a Vol."
