There are familiars and unknowns in hiring Jeremy Pruitt

The three coaches most often mentioned as the next Alabama Football DC would each be excellent choices. They are Jeremy Pruitt, Glenn Schumannand former Wisconsin coach Jim Leonhard. Other names are mentioned and some of them may do well, but none of them match the big three.

Of the three, many Alabama fans consider Pruitt to be the best choice. According to several Alabama football insiders, Pruitt and Schumann are in a mixed bag for the game. Schumann’s situation is easier to interpret. Where does he most want to coach? When he answers that question, both Alabama and Georgia offer everything needed to make a decision.

Friday, when Austin Armstrong was added to some lists of potential hires, the response from fans was surely Nick Saban wasn’t looking at Southern Miss DC. If Armstrong is considered for a position on the Alabama football staff, it will likely be a coaching position. In 2019, Armstrong and Glenn Schumann worked on Kirby Smart’s Georgia staff.

Alabama Football and Pruitt Knowns and Unknowns

No one knows Jeremy Pruitt’s coaching ability more than Nick Saban. What Saban probably can’t know is “exactly” what the NCAA plans to do with Pruitt and Tennessee’s rule violation at some point in the future.

The current NCAA investigation is not believed to bar him from being recruited by any school. He has not received an NCAA penalty, and the NCAA has not placed him on “show cause” status. Recently, when asked about Auburn’s hiring of Hugh Freeze, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said,

On our campuses, regardless of mythology, they make their own personnel decisions, but we take care of all recruitment decisions, here’s the background from a compliance perspective…

So the SEC didn’t stop Alabama from hiring Pruitt. The SEC can advise, but the Alabama Compliance Dept. has long negotiated with the NCAA about Pruitt. The question is, how could Alabama Football be adversely affected if Pruitt is on the Crimson Tide’s payroll when the NCAA imposes punishment for the University of Tennessee’s infractions?

In Nick Saban’s decision, one probably doesn’t know exactly what would happen. Pruitt admitted to the NCAA that he violated the rules. Did he tell them everything? Were others (Phil Fulmer, for example) as guilty or more guilty than Pruitt? If he didn’t tell the NCAA everything, has he done so with Nick Saban? And can Nick Saban afford to know anything the NCAA might not?

Only Jeremy Pruitt and a small number of people in Alabama can possibly answer the questions.

All the rest of us do and try to figure out what happens next – it’s nothing but guesswork. What we can and should do is trust Nick Saban to make the best decision.