Tennessee football is in the middle of a mess.
With NCAA sanctions looming, Tennessee fired head coach Jeremy Pruitt, along with nine other staff he hired, while athletic director Phillip Fulmer, the man who brought in Pruitt, retired.
The Volunteers answered by hiring UCF athletic director Danny White and UCF head coach Josh Heupel to the same roles in Knoxville. The two spent the last three years together before making the move.
Tennessee alum Albert Haynesworth, a 2002 first-round pick who spent nine seasons in the NFL, wrote a very critical rundown of his thoughts on Tennessee’s hire in a post on Facebook.
“BOYCOTT TENNESSEE FOR SYSTEMATIC RACISM!!!!!
“Obviously Tennessee Vols take Tee Martin for granted! Why do s–t on him, hell he even reduce his salary to help the university out when he didn’t have to? Is it bc he’s black? UT won’t even interview him. I bring race into it bc UT has passed over good qualified black coaches like Kippy Brown and others in these past coaching searches. Majority of your players are African-American why not put a African-American coach to lead them especially the one that won Tennessee a championship? You guys give everyone except a black qualified man a chance! With this said I will not be attending any games or supporting until I see change in the university that I love so much! I hope my fellow black Tennessee alumnus will follow me in boycotting the university in showing how serious we are about not feeling the equality for our fellow qualified black coaches!!!”
The former All-Pro defensive tackle called Tennessee out for not hiring UT legend Tee Martin, who quarterbacked the Volunteers to a national title in 1998 and was hired in 2019 to serve on Pruitt’s staff as associate head coach and receivers coach.
On the surface, it seems as if Tennessee has an out here. With NCAA sanctions coming, it is understandable the Volunteers would axe the entire staff, but we’ll know much more about the situation after the sanctions are announced.
This week former Bulldogs Brandon Boykin and Chris Burnette joined UGA Football Live with J.C. Shelton to talk Dawgs, their new podcast and more! Listen here for lots of laughs!