Josh Heupel Press Conference

Tennessee took the first step toward the future of its football program on Wednesday with the hire of UCF's Josh Heupel as its new head football coach. The former Oklahoma quarterback, a former assistant with the Sooners, Utah State and Missouri who was 28-8 in three seasons with the Knights in Orlando, is the 27th football coach for the Vols in their history and the fifth different coach to come into the program since the end of the 2008 season. Heupel had his introduction at a press conference at Neyland Stadium shortly after officially taking the job.

Heupel during his opening statement expressed his vision for Tennessee's future before fielding questions from the media in person and via Zoom for nearly 20 minutes, during which he addressed questions about the coaching staff he'll put together for the Vols, his expectations for the team's short- and long-term future, revealed why his offenses were so explosive and productive at UCF, his recruiting plan starting inside the state of Tennessee and why he left an appealing Group of Five position for a job several other coaches didn't want.

Opening statement:

"What an awesome day for myself and my family. So appreciative of the warm welcome we've received. I'm just excited to be a part of the Vol nation and Vol family. I want to thank Chancellor (Donde) Plowman and President (Randy) Boyd for your vision of what you want and foresee in athletics, the importance that it has on a collegiate campus and entrusting me and our family and entrusting us to mentoring and teaching these young men the game of life, not just the game of football.

"To (new athletic director) Danny (White), obviously those same sentiments, but having been around each other for three years, believing in the process we take our kids through and understanding what we're trying to accomplish on the football field. We want to go chase championships. We want to be our absolute best. At the same time, we want to develop them in life, too. Appreciate you guys entrusting us with the care of this program and these young men and individuals.

"When I was talking with Chancellor Plowman last night, one of the things that just registered with me and made this job opportunity so exciting is the aligned vision between leadership with everybody sitting here today. We talked about the importance of having a shared common vision, being able to work at our purpose to accomplish those things every single day and everybody pulling the rope in the same direction. When you have that in leadership, that's going to transcend through your entire campus and hopefully through our entire state here in Tennessee. When you do those things, great things are capable of happening, and obviously, I'm here because we have the opportunity to go chase championships on the football field.

"I also want to take this time to thank my wife Dawn, my copilot in life. She's probably piloting most of the time when I'm at the office. My beautiful daughter Hannah and my son Jace, they woke up to a changed world today. They were excited. There were a few tears maybe at the beginning of the day, but excited once they saw the orange T on the plane. They were ready to jump in and get here. Jace is excited. I was texting with Peyton Manning earlier and he’s counting down the days until he's able to catch a ball from him out on the game field. That was his first ask as we got on the plane.

"I also want to thank the players and the staff at UCF. The last three years have been a tremendous journey, tremendous ride. I appreciate them allowing me as their coach to be a part of their individual journey and accomplishing so many great things. I'm so proud of who and what we were as a program and so excited to see their success this year. There's great leadership inside the locker room and when you have great leadership from within, all things are possible, and I appreciate each and every one of them.

"One of the things that also registered with me, I was talking with the leadership here last night on a Zoom call, was Danny's conversation with the leadership council on the football team and the things that they are focused on accomplishing. That's why they came here to one of the biggest and best brands in college football. The things that they feel like they want, to make sure they have inside of the locker room, and at the end of the day it came down to connection. That's one of the things that's extremely important to me. It's been really hard this past year with COVID, but you play this game, it’s tough, physical, demanding game. You play it because of connection.

"There’s got to be a sense of belonging, a sense of brotherhood that has to reside in that locker room. To do that, you’ve got to spend time with each other and you have to do things outside of the game. That's one of the things that we try to pride ourselves on inside of our program here at Tennessee as we move forward, is that sense of connection, and that allows you to go chase greatness outside of the game. When you are connected you have a chance to love, when you have love you’re able to sacrifice for your teammates and this game is all about sacrifice. Accountability is something we talked about as well and making sure that we're being accountable to each other, the program, the process and the people that reside inside of it.

"On the offensive side of the football, Danny mentioned some of the successes that we have had as a program at UCF and throughout my tenure. We're going to play with tempo here. We're going to be the aggressor. We're going to play with our skill players out in space. We're going to give them an opportunity to push the football down the field. At the same time, if you really watch what we do, we're extremely balanced in our approach as far as run and pass. We want to be physical and we want to dominate the line of scrimmage. Those are all things that are going to translate to what we're doing here in Knoxville.

"At the same time, that aggressive mentality that we have on the offensive side of the football is going to carry over to what we’re doing on the defensive side of the football as well. We'll be multiple in our fronts, three-man and four-man fronts. We're going to bring pressure. We want to create negative plays. I think in the game of college football, offensively it's about creating big plays and defensively it’s about creating negative plays and getting people off schedule. If you put those two things together, you got a chance to have a really successful game plan and ultimately a season. I'm excited about embarking down that road as we get together as a football program here after this.

"I think one of the things that’s extremely important to the lifeblood of any program, but to the lifeblood here at Tennessee is recruiting. That's one of the great things here, is you have a national name, a national logo that allows you to go coast-to-coast and go attract the biggest, the best and the brightest. At the same time, the most important thing that we do is lock down our borders. We have to keep the kids inside of this state here, and that's for multiple reasons.

"They're going to play championship-caliber football, they're going to be developed, they're going to have an opportunity to move on to the NFL, they're going to get a great degree and they're going to be empowered to live inside this state once they are done with that degree. But we have to do that inside of our own borders, and that's going to come from me. A focus on recruiting in-state from me has got to transcend through our assistant coaching staff, but it’s also got to reside inside every Vol fan here inside the state of Tennessee. I say that meaning that everybody’s got to bring energy and passion, create and sustain a positive movement through everything that we're doing to create the sustainable change we need to lock down the borders here with our recruits.

"I'm excited about what we're embarking on. I'm excited to be a part of Vol Nation. I'm excited to do my very best for the state of Tennessee every single day. I promise you that our staff will do the exact same thing and I promise you that we’re going to embark on becoming what we're capable of becoming as a football program day-by-day and go chase championships and win those championships.”

How soon he’ll put together his coaching staff and if he’ll consider bringing coaches with him from UCF:

"We'll consider staff members from Central Florida. We'll do that. Also, current members on this staff, we'll have a conversation with them here, with the members here at Tennessee. It's important that we put together a staff at the right time, but that we get the right people, more than it is simply about the urgency of putting that staff together. But yes, we want to do it in a timely fashion."

His message to Tennessee players either considering entering the NCAA transfer portal or in there already and if he’ll recruit players from UCF to join him at Tennessee:

"I will not recruit players off of a roster that I was a part of. Don't believe that's the right thing to do. To the current members of this football program and this roster: We need to be a family. We need to act like a family. Everybody's got a different perspective, based on their background, of what a family is at times. When you sit in front of your team and there's 105 guys in front of you, everybody's got a little bit of a different perspective. But at the end of the day, a family to me is defined, when push comes to shove, that family stays together.

"Let's stay a family. Let's trust the people that are in place to help you become what you're capable of. You chose this university for the right reasons. I'm saying, you have the chance to be an elite football program. The tradition says that it should be. It's our job to get it back to that level. You're going to get an elite education and be in one of the best communities in college football.

"You walk outside to that stadium, I've coached here, and that's an electric stadium. There's not a better atmosphere in college football. I cannot wait to walk out to that, post-COVID next fall, and hear Rocky Top being played as we're running out. That, I just got goosebumps thinking about it. All of those things are still here. Trust me, our leadership, who I'm going to bring in, and give us a chance for our family to become connected. Let's go have fun together. Work hard, but let's have fun together and compete."

On the ongoing NCAA investigation and why the potential of penalties coming down not deter him from the job:

"I had very frank conversation with every person of leadership about what had transpired, what their knowledge is, what they believe is going to transpire as far as any penalty. The reason that I'm standing here today is because I believe in a very, very, very bright future for Tennessee football. I believe that there's a minor speed bump that we're going through, but the kids that are in our program right now and the kids that are being recruited are all going to have an opportunity to go play and chase championships."

On his offensive philosophy and background and how he's developed his system over his years as a coach:

"At the end of the day, you become a culmination of everything that you've done, but you really do change year-to-year, based on what your personnel is. That's who your quarterback is, what your skill set is there, who are the skill players around him. Whether you're going to play in three-wide receiver sets, four-wide receiver sets, or you're going to be in two-tight end sets. We've played in all of those things.

"It comes down to always looking at, and I think it's critical on the offensive side of the ball, but it's the same thing I'm going to talk to our defensive staff and our special teams staff about, is don't look at what kids can't do. Look at what they can do at a high level. Put them in a position of success. That is a coach's job. Understand who your players are and put them in a position of success. We'll base what we do offensively, as far as our personnel groupings and some of the subtle schemes, based on what our personnel is. It's grown and changed throughout the years, for sure."

How he’ll establish his new system on offense in his first offseason and if he’d like to keep Kevin Steele on his coaching staff:

"I'm going to have conversations with everybody that’s on staff. I'll touch on that question first. I think that's important. Your first question … we've done it successfully multiple times in different places that I’ve been. Your coaches have to get caught up to speed on what you're doing if they haven't been inside of the system. You got to coach your coaches, and then your coaches have got to put in time with your players. There's only one way to get to where you need to be, and that's time, effort, and energy. Our players have to be willing to go above and beyond to get to where we need to be. We will be able to get there, no question in my mind. As we get into spring ball, through summer workouts and by the time we get to the end of training camp, we'll be in good position by the time we hit the ground in the fall. "

What getting fired at Oklahoma at the end of the 2014 season mean to him and to his career:

"It gave me a chance, in some ways, just to kind of restart and re-look at what I wanted to do on the offensive side of the football. As a coordinator, you’re always going to try to carry out your head coach's vision. There were a lot of things we did successfully. I think we were top 10 in the country in offense that year and playing with a freshman quarterback that maybe started the last two-thirds of the season and ran into a buzzsaw in the bowl game against a really good Clemson football team. It gave me an opportunity to reshift my focus on what I wanted to be as far as an identity on the offensive side of the football."

On the challenges of being hired in late January as opposed to a more typical time of the offseason:

"The toughest part is getting a hold on what your roster actually is and what are the needs. With signing day being as close as it is, and all those vacancies that you want to fill, if you want to hold them, it's a different landscape now. too, because of the transfer portal. We talked about that as far as our own roster here, but junior college football is taking place this spring as well. As you get to spring ball, you potentially are going to need to fill some spots on your roster at that time as well. It’s a little bit different cycle, unique than what it has been in the past."

On how his UCF players handled his departure and if he spoke to them before taking the Tennessee job, and if the ability to compete for championships at the highest level was a factor in his decision to take the job:

"I got an opportunity to talk with our football team in Orlando this morning. It was important to me that we did that. At the same time, I created a video message for our new football team here in Knoxville. They were able to simultaneously, as I was having that conversation with them, receive a message from me, what I saw as the future of Tennessee football and things that are important inside of our culture. I love the players in Orlando. It was a hard morning.

"I said that about my kids when they found out that their home was going to change, but they are excited now, too. That was a tough conversation because you care deeply about the people that you’re pouring a lot of time and energy into as we did. I think for my family and I coming here, because we believe in this university, we believe in this football program, we believe in the leadership that we have here in place, and it's clearly aligned. There's a direct correlation to that alignment, and the ability for me to go do my job at the highest level."

How he feels he improved as a head coach over this three years at UCF in terms of being a leader and CEO of a program:

"I think your communication skills and how clear your communication has to be, not just with your football coaches, but with every support staff group that interacts with your players to give them the best opportunity to be successful. I think that's the No. 1 thing as I look back on the last three years. I'm in a better place today than I was before.”

What he learned about the SEC while coaching at Missouri in 2016 and 2017:

"The line of scrimmage in this league is different than it is in other leagues, so you’ve got to do a great job of recruiting and developing those guys. That size and strength matters up front, you have to do a great job. You're going to face elite pass rushers in this league, so you have to do a great job of protecting your quarterback as well, just from an offensive standpoint. But I think the line of scrimmage is the biggest difference."

On his relationship with athletic director Danny White and if he thought when White took the Tennessee job he would end up joining him in Knoxville:

"When Danny got the job here, I was disappointed that he wasn't going to be there (at UCF) any more. We had a conversation after it went public and wished him well and that was really the end of that conversation. I didn't think about this opportunity in that way. I think as a football coach, you're typically just living in the environment that you're in. You're so encapsulated in that and that's your sole focus that you don't think outside of those things.

"I think for Danny and I, for me, and I don't want to speak for him, there's great comfort in coming here and knowing exactly what you're getting out of the leader that you deal with the most. There's a clear vision of what he wants for the student-athlete experience, which is extremely important, and a clear vision of what he wants in an athletic department as a whole. There’s a lot of entities inside of our program here that are doing extremely well. You look at our basketball programs. It's my job to make sure that we're getting this built to the level where we can go chase championships every year, too."

On his vision for the successful future for Tennessee’s football program:

"We had a conversation, what are we looking for and how are we trying to build this? It's a long-term vision. I believe that we can have immediate success as well. We’ve got really good players inside of that locker room. I've watched a little bit of tape and have seen some of them in recruiting. There’s good players in there. It's our job as a coaching staff to get them ready to play their absolute best and go compete every Saturday. But at the same time, there's a long-term vision of what we're trying to build here for sustainable success and a clear vision of how we're trying to do that."

His history of developing of quarterbacks and what qualities quarterbacks need to have to be successful in his offense:

"We've had different guys play with a different skill set. Just going back through my tenure, we've had guys that were pure pocket guys to guys that have been able to use their feet in the run game, in designed runs or reading pressures off the edge, using their feet as a weapon in scrambles, we've had guys that fall somewhere in between. We've had 6-foot-3 guys and we’ve had 5-foot-10 in the last couple years at UCF. It's about the makeup and the guy inside as much as it is anything. How competitive are they? I think that's extremely important.

"What drives them every day? What is their ability to react and respond to adverse situations? Can they wipe the slate clean from the previous play? Can they handle all the noise and all the pressure that's going on around them, not just on game day, but in everyday life as they walk through campus? Can they meet the expectations and the work habits that you have to have? All of those little things add up to a guy playing at a championship level at that position. If you're going to chase championships, you better have a championship quarterback."

Why his 2020 UCF team that went 6-4 didn’t have the same success as his first two teams that went 22-4 in 2018 and 2019:

"All of our games, except for one loss, were one-possession games, really tight ball games. This past year, and everyone in America was dealing with it, COVID was a unique situation unto itself in how you brought your football team back. What were their workouts while they were away from you? When did you actually get your entire team back? What did your practice habits look like? For us, we didn't meet until the fourth game of the season, I think, as far as being in a full-team meeting that wasn't virtual. We lost some close ones.

"I think you look at the beginning of the season, I think we had close to 10 opt-outs, and all of those came because of different reasons and different challenges that they faced in their backgrounds. Some of them it might be a parent that was ill, some of them had young children, just different backgrounds. As the season wore on, I thought we got thinner as a football team and lost a couple of close ones to some good football teams."

How much he’ll reach out to and include Tennessee’s former players in the program and make them feel welcomed:

"If you played football here, you're welcome back here. I don't care if that's spring practice. I don't care if it’s observing a workout. I want them around our football program. That's important to me. I hope that when we get back to having spring games, I'm assuming there's an event that surrounds that weekend for former players (like) a golfing outing and coming to the game. I want guys here. Our guys that are currently playing (professionally), hopefully they come back and they're working out here during the offseason. Those are all things that I think are important. They give back to the players that are here. Hopefully, that does happen. Will I reach out to them? Absolutely."

On making in-state players the main focus of Tennessee’s recruiting plan:

"I didn’t know that (previous coaches) had sat up here and said, ‘Close the borders,’ but I do believe, I'd like to close the borders and not let any of them out. Is it going to be a focus? It absolutely will be a focus for us. That's the challenge for myself and for our coaching staff, to make contact with those guys and make sure they understand the importance they have inside of our program and the opportunity that they have inside of our program. Today being day one for me, giving them a clear vision of what we anticipate this looking like when they’re here."

If he got any advice or feedback from coaching colleagues on the Tennessee job and if you could still win big here:

"I think all the elements to win here are here. You are the biggest show, right? You walk out in that stadium and there’s 100,000-plus fans inside the stadium. Your facilities are as good as there are in the entire country. You're going to get a world-class education. A lot of the infrastructure that you need to be successful is absolutely here. Now it's about putting the right people in place to reach our young people so that we can have sustainable success here. We certainly believe that, having competed against them in the past, having watched them from afar, having talked to coaches that have been inside of this program in recent history."

Tennessee Hires Heupel

New Tennessee athletic director Danny White didn't have to look far to land his head football coach. White named UCF's Josh Heupel as the Vols' next coach on Wednesday.

White previously hired Heupel when White was the UCF athletic director.

"We ran an exhaustive nationwide search," White said at a news conference introducing Heupel. "I know that sounds crazy because I'm hiring the guy I've worked with the last three years. If anything, I was trying not to hire the coach from UCF."

White said Heupel was his top candidate based on his integrity, history of winning titles and being an innovative football mind who has led explosive offenses.

White, announced Thursday as Tennessee's new AD, has been working fast to find a replacement for Jeremy Pruitt, who was fired for cause Jan. 18 after an investigation that uncovered what university chancellor Donde Plowman called "serious violations of NCAA rules." White cast a wide net through the Parker Executive Search firm and reached out to and/or interviewed several candidates, including Penn State's James Franklin, Cincinnati's Luke Fickell, SMU's Sonny Dykes, Minnesota's PJ Fleck and Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott, among others.

Sources told ESPN that, over the past few days, Elliott had serious discussions about the job but turned down Tennessee's overtures and elected to stay at Clemson.

The university announced that Heupel's annual salary would be $4 million and that he would receive a six-year contract running through Jan. 31, 2027. There is also a gesture of good faith in the deal. If Tennessee receives sanctions by the NCAA consisting of two or more years of a postseason ban and/or a reduction of allowable scholarships to eight or more as a result of the previous violations, Heupel's deal would automatically be extended by a year through Jan. 31, 2028.

Heupel, 42, has been UCF's head coach the past three seasons after taking over for Scott Frost, who guided UCF to an unbeaten 13-0 record in 2017. Heupel is 28-8 with the Knights, including a 12-1 record in his first season in 2018. They finished 6-4 this past season. He would owe UCF a $3.4 million buyout, per the terms of his contract.

"I believe in a very, very bright future for Tennessee football," he said. "I believe that there's a minor speed bump that we're going through, but the kids that are in our program right now and the kids that are being recruited are going to have a chance to play and chase championships."

UCF has ranked in the top eight nationally in scoring offense and has averaged at least 42.2 points per game in all three of Heupel's seasons in Orlando.

A Heisman Trophy runner-up as a quarterback on Oklahoma's national championship team in 2000, Heupel has SEC coaching experience. He was Missouri's offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach in 2016-17 before he landed the UCF head-coaching job. He was also the co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach under Bob Stoops at Oklahoma for four seasons, but he was fired after the 2014 season, when the Sooners went 8-5.

Heupel will be the Vols' sixth different head coach going back to Phillip Fulmer, who was fired at the end of the 2008 season. Fulmer, who was named athletic director in December 2017, retired from that post on the same day Tennessee announced it was firing Pruitt for cause.

2021 Schedule Announced

Eight home contests, including visits from Pittsburgh, South Carolina, Ole Miss and Georgia, make up the 2021 Tennessee football schedule as the Southeastern Conference unveiled the full fall slate on Wednesday.

The 2021 season will feature the centennial celebration of Neyland Stadium, Shield-Watkins Field, which opened in 1921. The Volunteers have produced a stellar 473-138-17 (.767) mark in Neyland Stadium since its inception. Tennessee and the SEC return to a 12-game regular season slate following a unique 2020 campaign that included 10 conference-only contests due to COVID-19.

The Vols will open the Josh Heupel era with three consecutive home tilts beginning on Sept. 4 with Bowling Green, which makes its first appearance in Neyland Stadium. The two squared off in Nashville to open the 2015 campaign. The following week, ACC foe Pittsburgh visits Knoxville for the first time since 1983 on Sept. 11.

Other home non-conference games include Tennessee Tech on Sept. 18 and South Alabama on Nov. 20.

The SEC slate begins with back-to-back road games, including a Sept. 25 showdown at Florida and an Oct. 2 matchup at Missouri. Tennessee's SEC home opener will be against South Carolina on Oct. 9, while Ole Miss visits Knoxville for the first time since 2010 a week later on Oct. 16. It will be just the third time since 2000 that the two teams face off in Neyland Stadium.

The Vols renew their rivalry with Alabama on Oct. 23, the fourth Saturday in October, before an open date on Oct. 30.

The month of November features three home games to close the season. Following a road game at Kentucky on Nov. 6, the Vols will host Georgia (Nov. 13), South Alabama (Nov. 20) and Vanderbilt (Nov. 27). The Nov. 13 showdown with Georgia is the latest the two teams have met on the calendar since Nov. 21, 1906.  

In addition, Tennessee has announced three future non-conference games. The Vols will host UT Martin on Oct. 22, 2022, and in 2023, welcome Austin Peay (Sept. 9) and UTSA (Sept. 23) to Neyland Stadium. 

Danny White Press Conference

Tennessee introduced newly-hired athletic director Danny White just after noon on Friday afternoon. White takes over for former Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer, who retired in the wake of Jeremy Pruitt being fired earlier this week on Monday.

White and UT chancellor Donde Plowman discussed why both parties chose one another and the current search for a head football coach. Here’s everything White and Plowman said about the process to bring White to Rocky Top:

This article was transcribed by the Tennessee Sports Information Department

Opening statement:

“I want to thank everyone for being here with us today. To be in front of you twice in one week, truly says something about the sense of urgency we have in the leadership here at UT to move Volunteer athletics forward to greatness. Today, we are here to formally introduce Dr. Danny White, who we announced yesterday as our new vice chancellor and director of athletics. Before I hand it over to Danny, first I want to thank president Randy Boyd and chairman John Compton for their support in helping me find our new athletic director. More importantly, helping me convince him he wanted to come here. Their guidance and support has been absolutely invaluable. I also want to thank the many others in Vol Nation who have offered great advice and great support.

“I want to give you all some insight into how this all transpired over the last few days. We retained Parker Executive search firm on Saturday and they began to compile a list of potential AD candidates. I spent Monday evening and all-day Tuesday taking calls and talking to different groups inside athletics such as head coaches, senior leadership teams, student-athlete advisory council, the faculty-senate committee on athletics and groups of donors, just try to try to find out what we should be looking for in our next athletic director. We were confident that the position would be attractive and attract robust interest. We were immediately proven correct. Our search firm presented us with an impressive and diverse list of prospects, but it was clear who the top candidate was. It was Danny White. We moved swiftly, and I had my first conversation with Danny on Tuesday night over Zoom during the Tennessee-Florida basketball game actually, we both missed that. On Wednesday morning, president Boyd, chairman Compton and I had a 90-minute Zoom meeting with Danny, and that evening, the three of us flew to Orlando to meet with Danny and his lovely family. We were blown away by his ideas, his character and his commitment to both academic and athletic success. Shawn, Aidan, Molly, Caitlin and James, welcome to Knoxville. We are so happy that you can be here today to help us celebrate this great day for your husband and father and our next athletic director. Danny is a leader, an innovator, a builder. He comes from an extraordinary family of college athletics administrators, including the renowned and respected athletic director at Duke University, his dad Kevin White.

“As a matter of fact, a little side note. As I was reaching out and asking people for input about what we should be looking for in an athletic director, I was speaking with Peyton Manning and he said ‘I called coach Cutcliffe and said ‘what should I tell her about qualities in an athletic director?’ And he said tell her to pick someone exactly like our athletic director, Kevin White.’ And that was just really amazing because we did our best because we hired his son. The irony is, Peyton had no idea that Danny was on our short list. Danny has a stellar record of hiring great coaches and winning championships. His first task will be to hire a new head football coach and then to support the hiring of assistants and others in the athletic department. In these searches, he will of course be looking for fierce competitors and proven champions. But he will also be looking to assemble a team with diverse backgrounds and talents, a team with character and integrity, and a team that reflects his own commitment to all of our student-athletes and to the best traditions of the University of Tennessee. It is my sincere honor and privilege to welcome Dr. Danny White to the great University of Tennessee.”

Director of Athletics Danny White

Opening statement:

“Good morning, good afternoon—what time is it? I don’t even know what day it is right now. I appreciate you guys for making the time to join us this afternoon. I’m really excited to be here and so proud to be able to step into this unbelievable opportunity. I want to thank Chancellor Plowman, Chairman John Compton and President Randy Boyd. I just met these guys in the last couple days and its been an absolute whirlwind. I’m so impressed with their leadership, their commitment and their obvious love and passion for this place.

“When I finished the Zoom on Wednesday morning, I got a call from the search executives and they said it went pretty well. I said, ‘Okay, what are the next steps?’ They said, ‘They’re going to be in your living room this evening.’ At that point I thought that they were being pretty aggressive and I like that. I would like to think that I’m pretty aggressive and we need to be aggressive here at Tennessee to get to where we need to be and to get this athletic department where it belongs at the very top of college athletics nationally.

“I will be remised if I didn’t talk about some folks that gave me an incredible opportunity at UCF. Dr. John Hitt, the president that hired me there. President Whittaker and President Cartwright who is the current president there. The student athletes, the coaches, the staff and the staff that bought into a vision that five years ago people thought we were insane. We talked about doing some things that had never been done before and it’s all been accomplished and it’s only going to continue. I’m very proud of all of the work we did there and proud of the folks that contributed in that effort.

“Our success and any success that I’ve been fortunate to be a part of at both UCF and Buffalo starts with building a strong plan. And I really look forward to doing that with student athletes and coaches here at Tennessee and other key contributors. I just had the opportunity to meet with folks that have invested not only financially, but also emotionally and in every way possible in this place for many, many years. I can’t wait to get to work with everyone on what that vision is. What does Tennessee athletics need to look like five and 10 years from now? How do we regain our stature as a dominant college athletics brand in the Southeastern Conference and across the country?

“Chancellor Plowman had mentioned about my background a little bit. I would like to consider myself a product of college athletics. I grew up around student athletes and around coaches. I was on campuses and had donors and teams over to our house. Like these guys, I was probably pulling on players jerseys and trying to get them to give me piggy back rides as a kid. My mom incidentally was telling me the stories of when she was a track coach, and she would bring her team here to spend a week in Knoxville for big meets back in the day. We have a long history in college athletics. I would like to say that we’re not smart enough to do anything else. We’ve all kind of found ourselves working in this profession, but it’s really because it’s such a unique industry, but it’s bigger than that. On our staff we talk a lot about college athletics not being a job, but a lifestyle and you have to be bought into it. You have to believe in it and you have to believe in the student athlete experience. Before anything else I am extremely student athlete centric and I want the student athletes here at Tennessee to hear that from me as the Director of Athletics. Call the student athletes at UCF, they’ll confirm it. Every single decision we make will start and stop with their best interest. That’s what we’re going to be all about and if we do that, we’re going to see greater and greater success and will help them become the best version of themselves as an athlete, a student and a person, so that they will leave here and have every success in life.”

“Integrity is an enormous part of who I am, of the people that we hire. I want a head coach that I can trust unequivocally, and I know that person will hire a staff full of high-character people. That goes beyond just staying within rules and following regulations, whether they be university, conference or NCAA. It’s bigger than that. It’s having the right moral compass that’s going to rub off on our student-athletes. Be a role model for our student-athletes and make sure that we’re developing them in every way possible, that their parents will be proud of, that all of us will be proud of. Integrity is huge.

“I believe college athletics is all about the people. Recruiting and retaining talented student-athletes, coaches and staff to surround them. I think the same coach can be successful or not based on how they are supported from an administrative standpoint. Everything that needs to happen from a day-to-day basis, the energy that we approach our job with every day to support our programs, it’s the people that make the difference. Great facilities like this and the benefactors that invest in things like this are game-changers obviously in recruiting. But if we don’t have the right people, it’s for not. We have to be very intentional about recruiting, retaining and developing our talent here in all facets at Tennessee athletics.

“Building a championship culture, we talked about this the other night. There are a lot of different ways to define culture. The way we’ve defined it at UCF is when I see student-athletes realizing, any team, understanding that they’re not going to be successful if the team goal is not bigger than themselves. Beyond that, the overall athletic department’s success and the success of all the teams around them is bigger than their individual team. When I see student-athletes going to support each other at different events and caring about what Tennessee athletics is as a whole, what that brand is that they’re all representing on the national stage, and taking pride in building that brand, that’s championship culture to me. That tells me that they know they are a part of something big, a part of something special and I think that’s where we can achieve greater and greater success.

“Some of that, a lot of that may already be in place. There are a lot of great things happening in Tennessee athletics. There are unbelievable Olympic sports that have accomplished so much. There is a great and storied history. We obviously have some work to do on our football program as the chancellor mentioned from a leadership standpoint, and candidly from a competitive standpoint from where we have been. We need to get to work on that.

“The Tennessee opportunity, I saw an opportunity and I am flattered by the chancellor’s comments about classifying me as a builder. That’s how I have always thought of myself. I have never worked at the big-brand place until now, and I actually like the fact that the brand needs to be polished a little bit. Needs to be elevated back to where it was not that long ago in the college athletics space. I am really excited about the prospect of doing that and bringing Vol nation together. Bringing the fan base together from a positive support standpoint, a collaborative effort. It’s not just the big donors, the medium-sized donors, all the donors. It’s not just the season ticket holders. It’s not just our student-athletes and staff. It’s everybody that cares about this place.

“If you’re upset or you’re negative, text your buddy, don’t put it on social media. Let’s build some positive momentum. We’re going to have new leadership in our football staff. We have great leadership across the board in all of our sport programs. They need all of our support, and positive momentum comes from everybody that cares about UT athletics. I’m really looking forward to the charge of hopefully doing my part to inspire that. It’s an all-hands-on-deck type of deal. There is no one person that can do that.

“If we all work together and get the right people as I mentioned on the bus here, I couldn’t be more excited about the success that we can have here. We can compete. This place has already shown and is showing in many sports that we can compete for Southeastern Conference championships, which means we can compete for national championships. In the future, we want to do a whole lot more of that. Just a few comments from me, and again I appreciate everybody coming to join us today. I know we have folks virtual in the COVID era that we’re in. Whether you’re virtual or in person, thanks for being here and I look forward to answering any questions you may have.”

On what Donde Plowman and Randy Boyd said to him in Florida and why the football investigation didn’t deter him from the job:

“One of the things I think I mentioned that evening, or maybe it was in the Zoom earlier in the day at some point; if everything was humming here and going great, I wouldn’t be standing here. It wouldn’t be an attractive proposition for me. I was really proud and excited about what we were building kind of from the ground up at UCF, and this isn’t a ground up because it’s been there. But there is a lot of building that needs to happen. The challenges in terms of the NCAA investigation, the challenges in terms of not being where we want to be competitively in football—that excites me, that energizes me and I want to be a part of fixing it and building it. Going back to what they said, I think it’s probably more about how they said it. When I saw the alignment of the leadership of this university and how they connect with each other and as I mentioned, the obvious love that they have for this institution, it’s hard to identify. But my wife and I talking, we just felt like it was something that we want to be a part of. We knew, and I’ve known coming through the college athletics ranks, what Tennessee Athletics is and can be on the national stage in college athletics and again; I just want to be a part of it.”

On his message to the football student-athletes for a timeline on the head coach hire and the balance of innovation and tradition at Tennessee:

“There is no knocking on the tradition at UCF, and they take pride in the fact that they are so young, so yeah, it is different. I’ll touch on the first question first, I am meeting with the football team later this afternoon. I have never started a coaching search without hearing from the student athletes. They know a whole lot what’s going on, what’s going well, what’s not going well. I’ll ask them to vote, if they’re watching this they’re learning right now and I’ll tell them again this afternoon. I’ll share a little bit about my philosophy and how I will be approaching things here. I want them to vote on team leaders. I can’t meet with over 100 people and have a meaningful meeting. I want to meet with six, seven, eight, nine of them and give them a little bit of time, and give the rest of the team some time after they’ve voted on their team representatives, and give them time to download everything they’re thinking. I’ll ask that group to share with me, represent to me what the thoughts are, what’s the tenor of the roster, what they think they need in terms of attributes. We are not going to be going over candidates, that’s not fair to potential candidates. That has helped me in every search that I have been a part of and have led. I think it has been a big part of why the vast majority, if not all of those searches, have led to a better-than-expected first year, which allows a new leader of a program to get some momentum early on.

“In terms of tradition, I have a lot to learn about Tennessee. I want to continue to be innovative, I want us to be a place that comes up with that new idea. I love it when other athletic departments follow what we did at UCF and steal our ideas, I take great pride in that. But we are not always going to have great ideas, we are going to have some bad ideas too. We have to make sure that we don’t have too much pride to stick that one in the trash can because it didn’t work. But you are right, and I do acknowledge it’s a different place. The same things that we did at UCF aren’t necessarily going to be applicable here and I recognize and honor the vast tradition here, so it’s a balancing act.

On what his process looks like in hiring a coach:

“Ideally, in the age of social media and everything, it starts and it ends with the student-athletes. I’ve been able to accomplish that in all three of my football searches. I want to hear from them first, and I want them to be the first ones to find out who their new coach is. What happens in between – there is a whole lot going on there. I’m going to do a lot of homework. I’ve spent a lot of time researching and calling. I’m fortunate to have a pretty significant network in intercollegiate athletics, and I realize it is probably because of the way I grew up. I can get a candidate’s opinion from folks, and really understand who they are from a character standpoint. I don’t want to even be interviewing someone if I have questions about that. We need to make sure the person we’re bringing in to run our program is going to do it the right way, is going to do right by these kids, and is going to have an aggressive vision to get us highly competitive. So, I don’t know if I can offer any more detail than that because it’s a pretty fluid situation.”

On if he has talked to Tennessee defensive assistant Kevin Steele, if Steele is a candidate for the head coaching job, and if he feels he needs to have someone in place before Feb. 3 (signing day):

“I hadn’t thought as far as in terms of the Wednesday signing day, as I am kind of operating on about three hours of sleep for the last six days combined trying to figure this all out. I’m scheduled to visit with Kevin later this afternoon. Everybody is a candidate – everybody in this room is a candidate as this point. We have not narrowed this thing down at all, and we’re working through it. We are going to move quickly, and I think there is way, just as I have witnessed, with how quickly our leadership moved and moving us a lot quicker than we thought we would in terms of making decisions. There’s definitely a way, and I have done it before, to move very quickly and make sure that we’re not taking shortcuts and we’re getting the right person.”

On what he would tell head coaching candidates and recruits who want to know what the future holds for the football program:

“I’ve already learned and will continue to learn more, working with outside counsel that’s involved in the investigation. Just looking at case precedent with other NCAA cases. Until it is done, nobody will know exactly what the final results are. We will be very transparent and honest with the candidates involved in this search, and give them a good forecast for what that will look like.”

On what has allowed him to find outside the box, big-time hires that other ADs may not have considered:

“I think that what I’ve tried to do is similar to how we market our program, in terms of building a brand. Whether it be in a community, building a compelling case for support and philanthropy, I think the same is true for hiring a coach. How are you landing in a space where it’s distinctive? What is different about this person that’s going to change things in a positive way for your program? It’s going to change the type of kid or the type of talent you can get from a recruiting standpoint. What’s their vision from a scheme standpoint that makes sense for your institution geographically, recruiting-wise? At the end of the day, what I would like to do and what I typically do is narrow a list to those that I feel comfortable with from a character and integrity standpoint, that I feel like there is something distinctive. That makes them stand apart, that’s different about the prospect of their leadership. On paper, on video, you can do a whole lot of research online, as I do. At some point, it comes down to a gut feeling. The interviews matter and winning the job really matters. That’s where the final decision comes.”

On building back Tennessee fans’ trust as a new athletic director coming in:

“I’ll repeat what I said to our chancellor a couple nights ago: I hate to lose. And I imagine our fans hate to lose maybe as much as I do, but there aren’t many people who hate to lose as much as I do. I want the same thing they want. I want us to get extremely competitive, I want us to be competing for championships. If that could happen tomorrow, I would snap my fingers and make that happen. I am asking for their trust, to know that they have an athletics director that is going to work his tail off to figure out how to get the right leadership, the right staff and the right support around our football program. To make sure that happens as quickly as possible while doing it the right way. Because if we don’t do it the right way, it is not going to be sustainable. We need to build a football program like this University has had in the past, that is sustainably and consistently competitive on the national stage. I want our fans to know how bad I want that. I would not have signed up for this if I didn’t think we could deliver that. It’s going to be a lot of work, and we need their support. We need them to be positive, we need them to be bought in and supporting our student athletes. Imagine being a 19-year-old kid, getting out of bed in the morning in their dorm or apartment, and its 50 degrees outside and you have to go hit the weights and your Twitter feed is filled with a bunch of negativity. We can’t have that. We need all of Vol Nation to be bought in, be positive, and support this program because they are a big part of the momentum that we need to build from this point forward.

On if he needed assurance from the NCAA on its investigation into the football program:

“I don’t know that I ever considered that (the investigation) would be crippling. I don’t think a university, an athletics department and a football program with this much history and this much going for it is going to be crippled by something. I think it’s a matter of how long it’s going to take to climb out of it. I didn’t make this decision in a short-term type of way. I view this, hopefully, if you all will have me. Might be running me out of here in six months, I don’t know. (laughs) Hopefully, this is something that I’m building and being a part of for the long term. I’m not contemplating some of the short-term scenarios. I think in any reasonable scenario, as you look at case precedent with other issues that we’ve seen across the country, nothing is insurmountable. We can get through this, and we’ll get through it the right way, and we’ll get the program right back to where it needs to be.”

On what excited him about coming to the University of Tennessee and if he sought any outside counsel for advice:

“I talked to folks in my immediate family that are uniquely positioned to help me. Obviously, my dad [Kevin White] and my brothers [Brian and Michael], one’s an AD and one’s a basketball coach. There weren’t a whole lot of people that I could talk to, because of how quickly it was moving and just how confidential the process needed to be for my sake and for the sake of Tennessee. The more I learned about it, and what gelled it and sealed it for us, were these three individuals [Chancellor Donde Plowman, President Randy Boyd and UT Chair of the Board of Trustees John Compton]. The leadership, as I mentioned earlier, they really care. I really felt like I have and I would have their support unequivocally. It’s a big job. It’s going to be a big challenge. There’s strong leadership here. I was in a great situation [at UCF]. Never thought I would leave. If you would’ve asked me seven days ago, I would’ve said ‘Nope, never leaving.’ So I’m not walking away from something, I’m running towards something that I think is a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to restore one of the most iconic brands in college athletics.”

On the fan reaction during the first few weeks of 2018 as UCF capped a 13-0 season in football:

“It was all amusing. There was more than one national champion that year. I look forward to a better postseason [for the sport of college football]. I think everybody knows that, and I think we’re on the right track towards getting it. I think it’s going to be awesome for college football. It’s going to be awesome for Tennessee. It’s going to be awesome for all of college football, for the student-athletes that compete, participate in it and should have the ability to settle it on the field. It’s kind of funny, I’m on the other side of that conversation now. Have been for a few hours now, but if I had to do it all over again, I’d do the same thing. What those kids [at UCF] accomplished that year needed to be defended. I felt like in the role that I was in, I needed to fight for them and what they had accomplished which was phenomenal. An undefeated season is really tough to do. I’d do it again for any of our teams here. That’s just who I am. As I mentioned, I believe in student-athletes and I believe in the true spirit of competition.”

On his decision to leave UCF for the Tennessee AD job:

“What makes this one different is the opportunity to build. You saw in the Orlando market, that where we were five years ago and what I was fortunate to be a part of there … I just think that being a change agent takes a whole team. It’s not one individual and it’s not a small group of individuals that are going to be responsible for what needs to happen here. But I want to be a part of things like that. I’m not a placeholder type of leader … If there’s not an opportunity to build and fight for something, I’m going to be bored to tears. I don’t golf, don’t have a lot of hobbies. I love college athletics and I love trying to impact positive change, and there is a great opportunity here to do that.”

On social media and fan influence on a coaching hire decision:

“The last few coaching searches I’ve done at UCF, there was that list of one-two-three-four-five. Everybody is debating who it should be, and the people we hired weren’t even on that list. I’m not paying attention to that list. If I am, then I don’t know why you hired me. You might as well just go look at the list, start calling them up and see who wants to do it. It’s way more in depth than that, and we’re going to be expansive in our search, make sure that we turn over every single stone and look for what makes this place distinctive. We’d love to excite our fan base with whatever the hire is, and hopefully we do. Sometimes as I think about it, when I’m in a room with people with opinions. All of them have jobs, and they’re way smarter than me. They could be a doctor or an electrician, and they can all do all sorts of things that I would not be able to do in a million years. But I’m a reasonably smart person, and I’m going to be really, really close to this. I’m going to have all the facts at hand and do my very best to make the best decision for the University of Tennessee and its football program.

“I ask our folks to know that I’m going to put everything I have into this search and make sure that we’re making the best decision with everything that we know. I think that they’re going to like the outcome. Most importantly, I think our football program is going to thrive as we move forward on whatever that solution is.”

On an up-tempo brand of football and how a new hire would win the press conference:

“Schematically, that’s a more complicated conversation. I’m not at a place yet where we’ve identified [candidates]. I need to talk to these student athletes and do a lot of work, starting today, on what type of recruiting plan, scheme, and vision we think is going to give us the best opportunity to compete in the Southeastern Conference. You always want to win the press conference because you want people to be excited and celebrate. I hope we’re winning the press conference today. You guys are going to tell about that later or tomorrow. Why would we want people to not be excited and positive about what we’re doing? But we’re not going to try to win the press conference by making a decision we don’t feel good about in the short and long term as the best leader to take us where we all want to be.”

University of Tennessee, Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman

On identifying Danny White as a candidate and how they are going to search for a new football head coach:

“I wanted to find a builder; Someone who has built a strong program and would want to come here and join me in that same task. That’s what I see. What I’m doing is trying to help build this university and take it to the next level. Building this athletic department and the brand as Danny talked about, that was probably the single most important thing that I was looking for. The second thing was [Danny] had already been an athletic director. Experience in the role and successful experiences in hiring coaches.”

On what stood out about Danny White and why he was hired:

“I can think of two things. The search firm said when they called to see if [Danny] was interested, he said ‘I can win a national championship there.’ I don’t know if that’s true, but that’s what they told me. And the way he talked about this has been the iconic brand. It might not be flourishing like it has in the past, but let’s get that luster back. That was sort of a drop-the-mic moment for me. His experience, energy and positivity were all things that made it seem like a no-brainer.

On the vetting process in hiring a new director of athletics:

“A couple of ways to answer that question. I’ve said to people before, I have a really good track record of hiring effective leaders. They just haven’t happened to be in athletics. I feel confident about that judgement of mine. The search firm really did a great job of bringing forth candidates and they shared research with me. When I saw the ranking of the 20 best athletic directors in the country, and this guy Danny White was number four, that looks interesting to me. It was a fast process, but that’s why you hire a search firm, to really bring the people from the industry, the domain of athletics. I feel confident in my judgement about leaders, builders, and changemakers.”

On if she has any update on when the investigation may conclude:

“I wish there was. No. I don’t know any more than I said on Monday. I can’t believe we were here just Monday.”

On what the plan is with current assistant football coaches going forward:

“Those plans will be made by our new athletic director. So when he tells me what they are, I’ll be able to tell you. We have an athletic director and those are his decisions and responsibilities.”

On how difficult it was to convince someone to take the Tennessee athletic director job:

“I had a small search committee of three people – me, John Compton and Randy Boyd – and I decided that we were just going to take the big guns, go down to Orlando and put on the hard sell. And it seemed like it worked. In seriousness, I think that the alignment of the leadership at the University of Tennessee right now – I’m sure there have been well-aligned leaders in the past, but maybe not the recent past. I felt like that was a selling point of this place. I said to Danny, I think not of three-legged stools, but four-legged stools. We have three of the legs, and I think we need the fourth. He really seemed like he would be well-aligned with this team that we have.”

On bolstering positivity surrounding the athletic department:

“I love what Danny said. We need to be positive. It’s hurtful when you see those things on social media. I’m a grown-up, so I can’t quite imagine what that’s like for a 19-year-old. I think that would be a great starting point for us today, is to try to think about positivity on social media. Social media can be great but it can also be painful. So let’s move in a positive direction.”

Tennessee Hires New Athletic Director

Tennessee named UCF's Danny White as its new athletic director, the school announced Thursday.

White replaces Phillip Fulmer, who announced his retirement Monday. White's first order of business will be to hire a new head football coach after Tennessee fired Jeremy Pruitt for cause on Monday amid an investigation into alleged widespread recruiting improprieties.

White took over as UCF's vice president and director of athletics in late 2015. He has experience in the SEC and was senior associate athletic director at Ole Miss from 2009-12.

"While I am very excited about the opportunity to become the next Director of Athletics at the University of Tennessee, this was an excruciatingly difficult decision for us as we have absolutely loved our time here at UCF," White said.

"I am thrilled to be headed to Knoxville and to a university with a great competitive tradition and a spirited and devoted fan base. Volunteer fans have an expectation to win, and my first task will be taking on the search for a new head football coach. But I want all Vols to know that I am deeply committed to excellence in all of our athletic programs."

"Danny White is an innovative leader in college athletics with a strong track record in recruiting and developing leaders," Tennessee chancellor Donde Plowman said. "He brings the combination of winning attitude, competitive drive, and dedication to integrity and academics that we are looking for."

A former college basketball player at Towson University and Notre Dame, White is the son of former Duke athletic director Kevin White. Danny White's brother, Mike, is Florida's head basketball coach.

White's salary at Tennessee will be $1.8 million with an annual increase of 5%. He will be eligible to receive up to $300,000 annually based on team athletic performance, team academic performance and departmental operational goals.

In addition, Tennessee and/or White are responsible for a $2.5 million buyout that White owes UCF. Also, Tennessee will continue to pay Fulmer $450,000 annually through the remainder of his contract, which runs through Dec. 31, 2023.

Jeremy Pruitt Fired

Tennessee is firing football head coach Jeremy Pruitt following a weekslong investigation into potential recruiting violations within the program.

In a notice of intent to terminate letter sent to Pruitt by Tennessee officials on Monday, the university concluded that "the conduct by at least two assistant coaches and several recruiting staff members are likely to lead to an NCAA finding of Level I and/or Level II violations of one or more Governing Athletic Rules. The University also has concluded that these likely findings were the result of either your material neglect or lack of reasonable preventive compliance measures."

A copy of the letter, which was obtained by ESPN, states Pruitt is being suspended with pay before the university intends to officially terminate his contract at 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

The school said in a statement it also has issued termination letters to assistant coaches Brian Niedermeyer and Shelton Felton, four members of the on-campus football recruiting staff, the director and assistant director of football player personnel and a football analyst/quality control coach.

Additionally, Phillip Fulmer, a Hall of Fame football coach, plans to retire after leading the athletic department for more than three years. UT chancellor Donde Plowman said Fulmer's retirement is independent of and unrelated to the investigation.

"While the investigation is continuing, the information presented to us indicates serious violations of NCAA rules, they occurred and that these serious infractions warrant immediate action," Plowman said later Monday. "While I would like today to lay out the entirety of what has been shared with us, the fact is I cannot while the investigation continues. When we can do so, without compromising the investigation and without violating NCAA bylaws, we will do that.

"For now, I can tell you this: The information provided today indicates a significant number of serious NCAA rules violations. While we have no choice but to continue to ask for your patience while both the University and NCAA investigate, the personnel actions we are announcing today are an indication of the gravity of what we have discovered.

Plowman said Pruitt will be fired with cause, meaning no buyout. If he were fired without it, he would have been owed a little over $12 million, or 60% of the remaining money on his deal.

Just prior to the 2020 season, Tennessee announced it had rewarded Pruitt with an extension and a raise, taking his contract through the 2025 season. Pruitt was set to earn $4.2 million annually starting in 2021. Fulmer said at the time that they were close to finalizing the extension earlier last year before the coronavirus pandemic hit and that Pruitt elected not to accept the raise in the first year of the new deal.

Pruitt was scheduled to receive a $200,000 retention bonus on Feb. 15.

Pruitt has retained Michael Lyons and the Dallas-based trial firm Lyons & Simmons to represent him and plans to fight the university's decision to fire him for cause. Lyons accused the university of trying to disparage and destroy Pruitt's character in an effort to keep from paying Pruitt what the university owes him.

In a statement provided to ESPN, Lyons called the decision to fire Pruitt a "culmination of an orchestrated effort to renege on contractual promises made to Coach Pruitt upon his hiring in 2017 and reiterated less than five months ago."

Lyons also said in his statement that Plowman "personally confirmed during an in-person meeting with Pruitt (Monday morning) that: (1) the University's investigation had yet to have been completed; (2) the Chancellor had not yet read Coach Pruitt's NCAA interview transcript; and (3) there was no evidence that Coach Pruitt was either actively involved in any alleged violations or knew they were occurring. She further confirmed to Coach Pruitt that no employment decision had been made. Less than three hours later, however, Coach Pruitt was e-mailed a five-page, single-spaced letter of termination -- the contents of which were immediately leaked to the public."

Lyons ended the statement by saying Pruitt and his family are thankful for and will always cherish their time with the university and that Pruitt is "most thankful for and appreciative of the outstanding young men he was able to coach and mentor" and also wished the "remarkable fans that support them" nothing but success.

Pruitt's exit comes on the heels of Tennessee launching an in-house investigation, dating to November, into alleged recruiting improprieties that sources told ESPN centered in part on extra benefits provided to football recruits on unofficial visits. Pruitt, with his attorneys present, met with investigators for several hours on Thursday. That meeting was monitored by NCAA officials via Zoom. At least one other assistant, Niedermeyer, had a lengthy meeting with investigators on Wednesday, also with his attorneys present and NCAA officials monitoring virtually.

The university last month announced it had retained the services of attorneys Michael Glazier and Kyle Skillman with the Bond, Schoeneck & King law firm to assist in reviewing what the university said in a statement were "regulatory issues that have been brought to our attention." The Bond, Schoeneck & King firm has an office based in Kansas City dedicated to collegiate sports that is chaired by Glazier, a former NCAA investigator who now serves as a consultant for schools facing NCAA compliance issues. Glazier and his colleagues have been on Tennessee's campus since November interviewing assistant coaches, players and recruiting staffers.

Sources told ESPN that Tennessee's recruitment of Amarius Mims, the No. 3 offensive tackle and No. 19 player overall in the 2021 ESPN 300 rankings, is part of the inquiry. Mims signed with Georgia.

The Volunteers turned to Fulmer after removing John Currie from the AD role in December 2017. Fulmer coached the Volunteers from 1992 to 2008, going 152-52 overall and leading Tennessee to the 1998 national title. He had been working as a special adviser for community, athletics and university relations before taking over as AD.

Fulmer said he always expected to move on from athletics sooner than later and that the timing makes sense now so a new athletic director and coach can work together. Fulmer also said he thinks the program went from "quite a mess'' to having "lots of good things'' that have happened.

"This is very unfortunate in the sense that we're going to have to work really hard to keep it from setting us back,'' Fulmer said.

Tennessee is retaining Parker Executive Search to help hire a new athletic director. Plowman said the new AD will hire the new coach.

"We're looking for someone who is a strong leader, who has principles and values, who also has experience in hiring coaches, and who can help us look to the future,'' Plowman said. "We've got a great future here. As disappointed as we are, we're determined to get this right.''

Last week, Tennessee hired former Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele as a defensive assistant. A former head coach at Baylor, Steele will serve as acting coach until a successor is hired, and sources told ESPN he also would be considered for the permanent job. Steele played at Tennessee and started his coaching career in Knoxville, both under the late Johnny Majors. Steele was a finalist for the Tennessee head-coaching job when Pruitt was hired.

The Vols finished 3-7 this past season and lost seven of their final eight games. All seven of their losses were by double digits.

Pruitt was 16-19 overall at Tennessee and 10-16 against SEC opponents. The Vols were 2-11 against AP-ranked opponents under Pruitt, who was in his first stint as a head coach. He was previously the defensive coordinator at Alabama under Nick Saban.

The direction of Tennessee's program turned swiftly under Pruitt, who guided the Vols to six straight wins to close the 2019 season, including a win over Indiana in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. Tennessee ran its winning streak to eight in a row with two wins to open the 2020 season. But from that point on, the Vols' only victory came over winless Vanderbilt.

In particular, Tennessee struggled at the quarterback position and played four different QBs who combined for 14 touchdown passes and nine interceptions this past season. The Vols were last in the SEC and 119th nationally in third-down conversions (30.2%). They also had their problems on defense, ranking 105th nationally in plays of 10 yards or longer allowed (160).

Pruitt's replacement will be Tennessee's sixth different head coach, going back to Fulmer, who was fired at the end of the 2008 season. Fulmer took over as Tennessee's athletic director on Dec. 1, 2017.

Pruitt's exit marks the fourth head-coaching change this season in the SEC, joining Gus Malzahn at Auburn, Derek Mason at Vanderbilt and Will Muschamp at South Carolina.