The NCAA has approved Jacksonville State to bring on the former Tennessee head coach and Alabama staffer as an analyst, according to a report from 247Sports’ Mike Rodak.
According to documents obtained by AL.com this month, Pruitt — who was dealt a six-year show cause order by the NCAA in 2023 after alleged violations committed while at Tennessee — was seeking a court order against the NCAA so that he could take a job with a college football team.
Pruitt’s attorneys sought a preliminary injunction against the NCAA for “interfering with employment opportunities. The court filing noted that he had been “effectively black-balled” from working in college football.
The documents revealed that Pruitt was approached by Jax State with an opportunity to join the staff in June.
A message from AL.com to Jax State vice president for athletics Greg Seitz was not immediately returned.
According to the report, Jax State must submit an annual report on Pruitt and his gameday responsibilities to the NCAA in 2026, until his suspension ends; the university in June noted that it would be a partially-remote role, and he would be prohibited from attending games this season.
The modified terms of the show-cause order wouldn’t apply to any other program seeking to hire the 51-year-old Pruitt, per the report. Jax State must also “implement a robust monitoring program with shared responsibilities involving the compliance staff, head football coach, director of athletics and university president.”
Court documents revealed that the case filed in the DeKalb County Circuit Court was referred to mediation, with Birmingham attorney Mark White as mediator. The report notes that the NCAA and Jax State held a show-cause hearing on Oct. 23.
Jax State football coach Charles Kelly confirmed that he did “look into” bringing Pruitt on “in some capacity” when he was hired as the program’s head coach, adding that Pruitt is “one of the best defensive minds that I’ve ever been around in college football.”
Kelly served as special teams coordinator and safeties coach under Pruitt at Tennessee during the 2018 season. The two also won a 2013 BCS national championship together when they were on staff at Florida State.
“Here at our university, we are about compliance,” Kelly said. We are going to do things the right way, so there’s a process you have to go through in order to make hires.
“I can’t speak on those processes because I’m not able to do that, but I will tell you that we will do things by the book, and any time we’ve got a chance to get somebody that could help our players, help our staff or anybody else, we would try to do that.”
Since Pruitt’s firing after three seasons as Tennessee’s head coach and one year with the New York Giants, his most recent job has been at Plainview High School under his father, Dale Pruitt, who serves as head football coach of the Bears.
His first full-time collegiate job was as director of player development at Alabama under Nick Saban, before being elevated to defensive backs coach ahead of the 2010 season. He returned to Tuscaloosa in 2016 to serve as defensive coordinator.
Along with serving as defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at Georgia in 2014 and 2015, Pruitt coached at the high school level in Alabama at Hoover and Fort Payne.
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