The NCAA has approved Jacksonville State’s proposal to add former Tennessee head coach and Alabama defensive assistant Jeremy Pruitt to its football staff as an analyst, according to Bama247’s Mike Rodak.
The NCAA held a hearing with Jacksonville State on Oct. 23 and allowed the move. The decision modifies but does not remove Pruitt’s six-year show-cause ban, which runs through June 2029. The amended terms apply only to Jacksonville State and do not extend to any other institution that might seek to hire him during that period.
Pruitt was issued a show-cause penalty in 2023 following an NCAA investigation found more than 200 violations during his Tennessee tenure, including 18 Level I infractions. The university was fined $8 million and placed on five years’ probation.
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— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) October 31, 2025
Under the NCAA’s conditions, Pruitt will remain barred from attending games in person for the remainder of the 2025 season. Jacksonville State must also “implement a robust monitoring program” involving compliance staff, the head coach, athletic director and university president. The NCAA said it “applauds the intentional effort” the school took to ensure accountability and compliance in its proposal.
Pruitt will work directly with Jacksonville State head coach Charles Kelly, a former colleague from both Florida State and Tennessee. The two coaches also spent time in seperate stints as defensive coordinator under Nick Saban at Alabama.
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