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Tennessee football press conference live stream after Jeremy Pruitt firing

By Caleb Calhoun

COLUMBUS, OHIO - MARCH 24: Former Tennessee Volunteers football coach Phillip Fulmer looks on during the game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Second Round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament at Nationwide Arena on March 24, 2019 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
COLUMBUS, OHIO - MARCH 24: Former Tennessee Volunteers football coach Phillip Fulmer looks on during the game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Second Round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament at Nationwide Arena on March 24, 2019 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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Just like that, Tennessee football is in the midst of a coaching and athletic director change once again. This is nothing new to anybody who has been following the program for the past decade-plus. It just adds to the fun roller coaster.

The Vols are moving on from Jeremy Pruitt after three years on the job and will also move on from athletic director Phillip Fulmer. Both took over their respective roles in December of 2017, when Fulmer ousted John Currie and then hired Pruitt. They also moved on from outside linebackers coach Shelton Felton and inside linebackers coach Brian Niedermeyer.

Chancellor Donde Plowman and Fulmer addressed the situation regarding Tennessee football in a press conference. You can take a look at that to learn about what the future holds on Rocky Top by clicking on the video above, provided by the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Plowman announced that Kevin Steele, who was brought to the program just a week prior, will take over the interim head coaching duties. A new athletic director will hire a new full-time head coach, according to Plowman.

Of course, Currie was hired earlier in 2017 anyway before Fulmer. The Vols’ firing of Pruitt comes amidst an NCAA investigation that placed the program on a hiring freeze and involved numerous alleged recruiting violations. It likely doesn’t help that Pruitt just came off a 3-7 season despite a preseason top 25 ranking.

However, where UT goes from here is anybody’s guess. You would think that this is a great place for anybody to be at, but this will be the fifth coaching search since the Vols fired Fulmer dating back to the end of the 2008 season. It will be fourth athletic director change since Mike Hamilton’s departure back in 2011.

Obviously, the first step will have to be finding a new athletic director who can then hire the next coach. It’ll be hard for Tennessee football to have a coaching hot board before that athletic director hiring. What’s clear, though, is once again, a lack of stability continues to plague the program.

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