Tennessee football: Five best arguments for Vols to stick with Jeremy Pruitt

2. Possibly too expensive for a coaching change

Let’s throw out some numbers. A June 2018 report by KnoxNews, six months after Tennessee football hired Jeremy Pruitt, noted that the Vols led the nation severance expenses at $13.8 million. USA TODAY’s report on college sports programs’ finances showed that the Vols spent nearly $51 million on coaching expenses just in 2019.

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UT will finally be off the hook for Butch Jones’ buyout in 2021, but Pruitt just got a contract extension this past offseason through 2025 and a salary increase set to reach $4.2 million next year. Rocky Top would have to pay Pruitt 60 percent of the remaining salary on his contract if they ever parted ways, only offset by pay he might find elsewhere.

Then there’s the KnoxNews report from last month that the football program has lost $40 million due to changes to handle the pandemic this season and the fact that the athletic budget currently has a $15.6 million gap. Sure, Rick Barnes and Kellie Harper have taken paycuts and Pruitt has delayed his salary increase, but this is still a lot of money.

Simply put, the administration may not be able to afford to fire Pruitt given all the buyouts it’s been paying and now the pandemic that has hit. Speaking of the pandemic, that leads to our final case for Pruitt as well.