Tennessee Football Investigating Recruiting (Incl. Eric Gray)
ESPN article says the Volunteers aren't extending/hiring assistant football coaches until they investigate whether recruiting violations occurred (allegations include improper benefits and other rules violations).
All of this cites "sources", but the article names Amarius Mims, #3 OT in the 2021 ESPN 300 (signed with UGA) and Eric Gray, who you may remember. Gray was held out of the regular-season finale against TAMU apparently due to the compliance inquiry.
January 7th, 2021 at 10:39 AM ^
SEC School giving improper benefits?! SHOCKED! Shocked I tell ya! ?
January 7th, 2021 at 10:40 AM ^
As I've said in a previous thread, the only thing more pathetic than cheating your ass off in college sports is cheating your ass off in college sports and STILL sucking
Tennessee football and basketball, LSU basketball, Ole Miss football circa a few years ago, Arizona State basketball, Arizona basketball, Arkansas basketball, etc., etc.
January 7th, 2021 at 10:47 AM ^
How pathetic is not cheating and still sucking???
/asking for a bponed fanbase
January 7th, 2021 at 1:07 PM ^
Imagine losing 1 5-star commit and another 100% Crystal Ball 5-star recruit...and still being a top 5 team?
Thank God for this basketball team.
January 7th, 2021 at 10:55 AM ^
Tennessee basketball was pretty good a couple years back. I think they made it to the Sweet Sixteen but lost to that really good Purdue team with Cam Edwards, Ryan Kline, and Isaac Haas. Also they're currently ranked 9th in the AP poll but they've not looked like they deserve that ranking lately.
LSU basketball was also pretty good a couple years back, making it to the Elite 8 if I'm not mistaken.
I think LSU and Arizona have slowed down or completely stopped their system of bagmen lately due to the investigations and possible penalties the NCAA threatened in the summer of last year. Neither program has been recruiting at the level they were back when they were good.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:03 AM ^
Both lsu and Tennessee only made sweet 16s at the "height" of their success. That's a lot of money to spend on players and coaches only to lose two rounds earlier than teams like Loyola Chicago and Texas Tech do
January 7th, 2021 at 11:48 AM ^
Worse yet is cheating, sucking and then getting caught. Like hatin’ ass Spurrier used to say - ‘can’t spell citrus without UT’
January 7th, 2021 at 12:18 PM ^
They really were only bad because of QB play. I watched UT games (I live here and my wife is a fan) until the M started their season.
That guy can throw a corner route like a pro. Every other pass was like playing blind drunk darts.
Frankly, if they had any QB play to go with Gray and a decent defense they may have been OK this year. At least 500 in an all SEC slate.
January 7th, 2021 at 12:47 PM ^
That's like saying if we had QB play to go with our stable of 4 RB's and an OL we might have been OK too. That's a lot of holes that are missing. It's not like it was one guy / position.
January 7th, 2021 at 3:44 PM ^
Perhaps I'm not being clear. They did just need 1 guy. A QB.
Gray and the run game was pretty good until defenses figured out the QB was as likely to shoot himself in the foot as hit one of his own receivers.
The defense played very well until they had to start playing 40 minutes a game because the offense couldn't stay on the field and couldn't score.
Maybe I needed a comma?
January 7th, 2021 at 7:08 PM ^
Sure sounds like a familiar problem
January 7th, 2021 at 12:43 PM ^
Say what you will about the football program, Tennessee basketball is pretty good.
Otherwise agree, if you're going to cheat you may as well get something for it.
January 7th, 2021 at 10:43 AM ^
What I can't wait to see is how ESPN barely (if at all) even mentions it.
Meanwhile....if it were a BIG team (especially Michigan), then they would not only have it as the lead story, on the ticker, but they would have total segments of "Talking heads" discussing how much of a disgrace it is. ?
January 7th, 2021 at 10:57 AM ^
The OP linked directly to an ESPN article on their front page. lol
The first two words of this post are "ESPN article", they're reporting it.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:49 AM ^
Maybe try, you know, reading it. The article is from espn’s front page ffs
January 7th, 2021 at 12:30 PM ^
ESPN is covering it because it is not Bama, LSU, Georgia, Florida that got caught. Any of the other SEC schools are fair game for a single article on the issue then they will drop it.
January 7th, 2021 at 10:50 AM ^
NCAA: "I don't care how egregious this is, even if you've spent more money than the New York Yankees to put this roster together, your penalty will be.... a one year bowl ban."
January 7th, 2021 at 11:02 AM ^
Retroactive
January 7th, 2021 at 11:24 AM ^
To whatever year you missed the postseason anyhow.
January 7th, 2021 at 10:51 AM ^
This was brought up last month, but glad to see that ESPN is finally jumping on the bandwagon of reporting SEC infractions/investigations.
January 7th, 2021 at 10:56 AM ^
So if you have always had great players (Bama,OSU ) you don’t get looked at. But if you have a sudden uptick in talent (UT, Ole Miss) things seem to unravel.
Bama was bad before Sabin. Are we to believe they have a better bag system vs compared to the others?
January 7th, 2021 at 11:01 AM ^
I think a lot of it is how it occurs. I have never thought Saban himself has ever paid players or allowed his coaching staff to do so. They're smart enough to have boosters that handle all of that for them.
January 7th, 2021 at 1:48 PM ^
Hear no evil see no evil.
Lack of institutional control...is that even a thing anymore?
It’s like smoking weed.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:02 AM ^
Tennessee investigating so they can fire Pruitt without paying a buyout. Perhaps Michigan can open an investigation. Just retroactively hold out of a 2020 bowl game as punishment.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:06 AM ^
Ladies and gentlemen, I think it's time we finally investigated Peru ball
/s
January 7th, 2021 at 11:13 AM ^
Shocker.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:16 AM ^
SEC it just means more (money)!
January 7th, 2021 at 11:19 AM ^
I assume that TN is "investigating whether recruiting violations occurred" and if not, then why?
I think the bigger question would be whether there is any one year period in which violations did not occur.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:55 AM ^
I am smelling a self imposed 1 year post season ban coming in the near future.
January 7th, 2021 at 12:01 PM ^
The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky they're going to give Cleveland State another year of probation - Jerry Tarkanian.
If this was Bama, OSU or Clemson there wouldn't even be an investigation.
January 7th, 2021 at 12:08 PM ^
I could be wrong but I thought this was a self reported violation. Perhaps their motives are pure... or perhaps they want to fire Pruitt and not pay his buyout.
There I go again questioning the motives of an SEC school. Shame on me.
January 7th, 2021 at 12:03 PM ^
Looks like the Vols are in the catbird's seat to reclaim the Fulmer Cup to it's rightful home.
January 7th, 2021 at 12:09 PM ^
I'm surprised it took a school this long to investigate the gambling in the establishment when they need to get out of a buyout.
January 7th, 2021 at 12:09 PM ^
I'm still waiting for the media outrage (looking at you Brett McMurphy) over the absolute mess of a sexual abuse scandal that is unfolding at LSU but somehow going completely under the radar.
January 7th, 2021 at 1:43 PM ^
You should probably post some info to help out.
January 7th, 2021 at 12:17 PM ^
I always wonder if guys get caught up in this stuff because their coaches push them toward it when they arrive on campus or if that's a recruitment benefit that leads them to signing? Not to say Gray flipped to UT because they offered him something extracurricular (if I remember correctly it seemed somewhat mutual on both sides), but you see these same types of schools get busted with the same paper trails and it feels almost ordained.
January 7th, 2021 at 12:34 PM ^
I tend to believe that in the long run it is more about character that wins out. That and coaches who are willing to turn a blind eye to winning. Just look at the shit storm that happened at Baylor with the academic and sexual assault scandals in the football team when Art Briles was the coach. All in the name of winning football games. They took a bunch of kids that had questionable personality profiles threw them on a team that had little to none coaching focus outside of football and let them run wild on campus for 4-5 years.
January 7th, 2021 at 1:38 PM ^
Unless they already know they're guilty and getting caught, no way Tennessee would investigate themselves.
January 7th, 2021 at 1:44 PM ^
Hopefully Tony "fuck Michigan" Solomon gets out unscathed!
January 7th, 2021 at 1:55 PM ^
Aubrey?
January 7th, 2021 at 2:03 PM ^
His friends call him Tony.
January 7th, 2021 at 3:52 PM ^
Yeah, it really irks me still that he was able to commit after saying that, cuz starz, so at first I mixed his name up with Anthony Solomon and now it's just what I call him.
Kinda in like a Jersey shore accent like Partridge probably has.
January 7th, 2021 at 4:34 PM ^
I was just making sure I had the right guy. Cheers!
January 7th, 2021 at 8:58 PM ^
To be fair ,SEC schools need to cheat to keep up with the SEC "elite" teams that are basically allowed to cheat with no repercussions.Many vidoes,tweets,other social media things where we see Bama,LSU,Georgia,Auburn etc,with kids rifling thru 1000s of dollars in cash,driving $80,000 cars and their parents on vacations,driving nice cars and getting their bills paid ... but no one seems to care .Alabama players have admitted to being paid and still NCAA doesnt care
January 15th, 2021 at 4:29 PM ^
WOW!!! Imagine that000000/