Tennessee football: Jeremy Banks dismissed from Vols

Tennessee football sophomore Jeremy Banks has been dismissed from the Volunteers. Head coach Jeremy Pruitt announced the decision Friday.

Amidst a slew of controversy surrounding an arrest from last month, Jeremy Banks has been dismissed from the Tennessee football program. According to Wes Rucker of GoVols247, Jeremy Pruitt confirmed the news in a statement on Friday.

Banks played running back last year and moved over to middle linebacker. He was arrested in the early morning hours of Sept. 15, the day after the Vols beat the Chattanooga Mocs 45-0, after a traffic stop revealed he had an outstanding warrant for an arrest for driving with a suspended license back in July, according to reports.

However, this week, WBIR released body-cam footage of Banks making insulting comments to the police officers who arrested him and Pruitt speaking with them over the phone. At one point, Banks can be heard saying, “Where I’m from, we shoot cops.”

This week, Pruitt condemned the comments and Banks issued a public apology, however, there were no reports of him being dismissed from the team yet. That didn’t come until Friday afternoon, which suggests something else came to light. Pruitt even said in his statement that information he recently received resulted in his decision to dismiss Banks.

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Many people may find those statements hollow, but given how quickly Tennessee football reinstated Bryce Thompson, that actually seems to be very plausible. It’s even more plausible when you consider the fact that he made the decision on a Friday afternoon just before the Vols are set to face the Georgia Bulldogs.

A four-star recruit out of Cordova High School, which is just outside of Memphis, Banks was a high school teammate of UT offensive lineman Jerome Carvin, another four-star out of that high school. Both were in the 2018 class.

As a running back his freshman year, he had 52 carries for 185 yards and three touchdowns and one reception for 10 yards. He also had three tackles when moving over to linebacker that year. Then, this year, after moving over to linebacker full-time, he had seven tackles and two interceptions, both of which came in that Chattanooga game.

With Henry To’o To’o emerging and Daniel Bituli getting healthy, Tennessee football likely has its key inside linebackers now anyway for the rotation Jeremy Pruitt wants, and Quavaris Crouch’s emergence is helping with that. But the dismissal of Banks still limits their depth, so Pruitt and Derrick Ansley will have some things to deal with the rest of the year.