12 text messages in Tennessee NCAA recruiting scandal that buried Jeremy Pruitt, staff

Knox News obtained approximately 6,000 text messages via an open records request that reveal the scope of Tennessee's NCAA investigation into recruiting violations. The text messages show how Vols staffers such as Shelton Felton, Bethany Gunn and Brian Niedermeyer shuttled recruits around on impermissible visits during COVID dead period and paid for everything. The text messages are a smoking gun for Jeremy Pruitt's knowledge of the NCAA violations, with staff members deferring and relaying decisions on some extra benefits to him, according to the records. EDITOR'S NOTE: This story contains explicit language that might not be suitable for all readers. Knox News, after reviewing approximately 6,000 text messages obtained through an open records request, has decided to publish all correspondence in its original state to detail the scope of major NCAA recruiting violations committed by Jeremy Pruitt and some of his Tennessee football staff members in 2020. The violations led to a yearslong NCAA investigation and several for-cause firings, including Pruitt. Tennessee football staff members under Jeremy Pruitt talked about cheating in brazen and sometimes profane ways, their text messages reveal. And they show that Pruitt was in the loop. Knox News obtained those text messages through an open records request, and they show the extensive effort university leaders took independent of the NCAA to uncover the scope of the violations. The messages show what investigators uncovered in a yearslong probe into major recruiting violations committed under Pruitt’s watch from 2018 to early 2021, and why the NCAA committee on infractions levied harsh penalties on Pruitt and his staff. Pruitt received a six-year show-cause penalty. That means a university cannot hire a coach or recruiter without being subjected to penalties during the length of the ban unless the NCAA signs off. Show-cause penalties also were given to assistant coaches Derrick Ansley (two years), Brian Niedermeyer (five) and Shelton Felton (four); recruiting director Bethany Gunn (five) and assistant director Chantryce Boone (10); director of player personnel Drew Hughes (four); and student assistant Michael Magness (three). Pruitt's wife, Casey Pruitt, did not receive a penalty for her part in the violations. She previously worked in NCAA compliance jobs at three other schools. The NCAA discovered serious violations through various means. One of the best sources was an investigation by an independent law firm hired by the university. The law firm conducted more than 120 interviews of UT football coaches and staff, players, recruits and their families, high school coaches and other individuals, and turned over the results to the NCAA. Phone calls, emails, financial records, travel records, video footage and other evidence were also examined.But text messages from the individuals involved provide the most colorful account of the malfeasance. Knox News reviewed approximately 6,000 text messages from Pruitt’s staff. They were gathered from seven cell phones, including university-issued phones and personal phones volunteered by cooperating members of the recruiting staff as part of the investigation that was ordered by Chancellor Donde Plowman. The text messages show that UT staff members knew what they were doing was wrong and they knew it needed to be hidden. Here are 12 of the most eye-opening texts. ‘I told (Pruitt) you had it all set up’ Pruitt told UT investigators that he was “shocked” that members of his staff paid for impermissible recruiting visits, according to UT’s internal investigation report obtained by Knox News through an open records request. But text messages suggest Pruitt was kept in the loop. On Aug. 15, 2020, Pruitt was implicated in a text exchange between Felton and Gunn about a recruit’s impermissible visit. It was during the COVID dead period, when the NCAA did not allow coaches to have in-person contact with recruits or host them on campus visits. “Pruitt about to call you,” Felton said to Gunn in a text message. “I told him you had it all set up.” Felton was referring to paying for accommodations and entertainment for a recruit on a visit. Later that day, Gunn text Felton: "Coaxh [sic] is up to speed." ‘We trying to do some epic shit’ On Oct. 27, 2020, in the final days of the recruiting scandal, Pruitt’s coaches showed their hand. Felton warned UT quality control coach Larry Harold not to send some unspecified information to his university-issued phone. “Hey don’t text stuff like that to school phone,” Felton said. Harold replied to the same phone number, presumably Felton’s work phone, with an acknowledgement of why Felton would make that request. “Ain’t nothing we discuss need to be on that work phone. We trying to do some epic shit! Keep it street man,” Harold said to Felton. The next day, Felton asked Harold to come see him in person. Felton then said “All about the Benjamins” in a text message with no context. The NCAA found that almost $60,000 of cash or gifts were provided to UT recruits, players and their families by Pruitt, his wife and numerous coaches, recruiting staff and at least one booster. Shortly before UT hired Harold in September 2020, he was a Kentucky State assistant coach with connections to prized recruits. He told investigators that “Benjamins” and other text messages referencing numbers were about a recruit seeking a large sum of money in exchange for signing with UT. Harold appeared to be acting as a negotiator. But Harold and Felton denied that UT offered to pay the money. The NCAA did not include that allegation in its report because of a lack of corroborating evidence. Harold volunteered access to his personal phone, but he had deleted all communication with the recruit. But the text messages about money, recruits and keeping information off work phones didn’t help their defense of other wrongdoing. ‘If funds are low is there a reservoir’ There was ample evidence that Niedermeyer funded many of the impermissible accommodations to recruits and payment to players from large ATM withdrawals he made around the time of recruiting visits. Players told investigators that Niedermeyer kept a large amount of cash in the desk drawer in his office. And a text message exchange in October 2020 suggested that Niedermeyer had access to extra money for recruiting visits, when needed. “If funds are low is there a reservoir,” Gunn asked an unidentified person while hosting a recruit on an impermissible visit. After Gunn told the person she had only $387 remaining, she sent a text message to assistant director of player personnel J.T. Hill. “Did Niedermeyer ever mention an extra funds stash,” she asked. Hill did not respond. Thumbs-down emoji to NCAA rules For 15 months during the COVID pandemic, coaches were not permitted to have in-person contact with recruits. The NCAA extended the dead period numerous times from March 2020 to June 2021. But under Pruitt, UT kept recruiting as normal. It quietly hosted recruits on campus and paid the tab for their transportation, meals, entertainment and hotel stays as if they were on official visits in a typical recruiting calendar. On Nov. 11, 2020, Boone, the assistant recruiting director, shared a CBS Sports article with Felton with the headline: “Recruiting dead period will be extended to April 15, keeping coaches away from recruits for over a year.” Felton replied with a thumbs-down emoji. Two days later, the football program thumbed its nose at those NCAA rules by hosting a recruit and paying his expenses. That was routine. Investigators found that UT hosted recruits on nine separate weekends between July and November 2020 during the COVID dead period. ‘It’s all gonna be secretive now’ On Oct. 22, 2020, Gunn, the recruiting director, and assistant recruiting director Rachel Bell discussed through text messages that a recruit’s academic transcript did not pass muster from the UT admissions office. They acknowledged that UT would continue to recruit him and invite him to campus on an impermissible visit. Gunn said, “It’s all gonna be secretive now since they didn’t get approved.” Doing business as usual in spite of NCAA rules was a theme throughout the text messages. ‘We all know what we’re doing’ On Jan. 11, 2020, director of player personnel Drew Hughes asked Gunn for Pruitt to allow an off-the-books official visit by a recruit so the program could give the player blueshirt status. A blueshirt is a player who goes on athletic scholarship but does not play in a game in their first season. But they do not count against the maximum number of players signed until the following year. So the practice allows coaches to oversign in a class. Unlike a redshirt, a blueshirt player can’t go on an official visit to the school. During an official visit, the university pays for the recruit's expenses. A recruit on an unofficial visit must pay his own. “Can someone on campus staff confirm with Coach Pruitt that (the recruit) can come over for an ‘official’ (visit) next weekend,” Hughes said. But, according to Gunn, Pruitt was concerned that quality control coach Carter Blount didn’t understand that UT needed to secretly pay the recruit’s expenses while pretending that he was on an unofficial visit. Gunn replied: “(Pruitt) said Carter needs to talk with him because he’s not sure they are under the impression that it has to (be) an ‘unofficial’ official (visit). So as of right now that’s a tentative no.” Hughes was frustrated because he thought the plan to bypass NCAA rules had been discussed. “That makes no sense. We all know what we’re doing,” Hughes said to Gunn. “We can’t bring (the recruit) in on an official (visit) on the books. Has to be done like we talked about. “Carter knows how to handle the situations. Get the (hotel) rooms (for the recruit) and I’ll handle coach Pruitt.” Hughes gave the go-ahead to set up the visit, and he acknowledged that he talked to Pruitt. “It wasn’t explained properly,” Hughes said to Gunn. “I’ll handle these things from now on. Coach acted like he hadn’t talked to anyone about it.” Pruitt’s staff submitted documents to the athletics compliance office classifying the visit as unofficial. But Gunn told investigators those documents were falsified. Pruitt, in his response to the allegations in November 2022, claimed the text messages show how coaches intentionally did not include him in plans to violate rules. ‘This stuff is too messy/sketchy/illegal’ Gunn and Boone granted investigators access to their personal phones. During a text exchange on Oct. 10, 2020, Gunn and Boone were frustrated at how disorganized the secret recruiting plan had become. Coaches were inviting recruits to Knoxville without telling the recruiting staff. And those recruits were inviting increasingly larger groups of friends and family members to Knoxville restaurants, where UT picked up the tab. One recruit brought 11 people with him to Storming Crab. Another recruit had a party of seven at Scrambled Jake’s Breakfast Co. “This stuff is too messy/sketchy/illegal to leave details LIKE WHO IS COMING out,” Boone said to Gunn. “Like can we be efficient at this if we don’t have a full head count.” Boone added, “This is getting hella ghetto. Only our coaches get people to come visit and we don’t know who all coming.” A month later, UT Chancellor Donde Plowman’s office received a tip that “some football players were getting paid,” according to Plowman’s statement in an NCAA Committee on Infractions hearing obtained by Knox News through an open records request. ‘Ease your way into being an asshole’ Recruiting staffers ranted about recruits taking advantage of free meals and accommodations that UT wasn’t supposed to pay during a dead period. On Oct. 10, 2020, Boone complained that a recruit had an attitude while getting perks under the table during his first impermissible visit. “We can’t ever just have a smooth weekend,” Boone said. “Like bro you good and a hell of a player but ease your way into being an asshole … not the first visit.” Gunn argued that the recruit’s high school coach caused most of the headaches. “It’s not even him it’s his coach!!!” Gunn said. ‘These lil mf expensive’ By October 2020, costs for entertaining recruits were rising. Boone and an unidentified person had a text exchange about how much money it cost to impress recruits during secret visits. The unidentified person likely was a student worker or UT player hosting the recruit since his name was redacted from the report. “Man these lil mf expensive,” the unidentified person said to Boone, using shorthand for an expletive. “(I don’t know) why you surprised,” Boone replied. That weekend, Pruitt’s staff provided $2,424 in impermissible inducements to two recruits, their coaches and family, investigators found. Then Boone lamented that one of the recruits may be squeezing every dollar out of UT while planning to instead commit to Georgia. “Hell he may fuck around and run us up and go to UGA,” Boone said. ‘I feel a call from compliance’ On Aug. 15, 2020, UT staff members paid for nail salon services and a restaurant tab for a recruit and his mother, investigators found. It was in Knoxville but not on campus, which kept the violations away from the athletic compliance staff. On that same day, Boone sent a text message to Gunn that said, “They outchea (out here) spying.” It sounds like a warning, but the context isn’t clear. But Gunn replied, “I feel a call from compliance.” Investigators found that Pruitt’s staff went to great lengths to hide their malfeasance from administrators and compliance staff. ‘What’s your Venmo?’ On the weekend of Aug. 14-16, 2020, almost $2,000 was spent on entertaining a recruit and his family on an impermissible visit, including free meals, hotel rooms, arcade games and nail salon visits. But after the recruit left Knoxville, there was one unplanned expense. A UT player hosting the recruit struck a curb with his car while driving him through downtown Knoxville, and it required a tow to an auto repair shop. Gunn and Boone helped the player contact a tow truck. Gunn asked the player, “What’s your Venmo?” Then she sent $86 to his Venmo account to reimburse him, records show. It was a small payout and a minor violation compared to more serious infractions in the case. But it demonstrated how casually UT staff members would pay money to select players and recruits. ‘Like a Sugar Daddy that launders money’ There are hundreds of text messages between recruiting staffers about booking hotel rooms and making reservations at restaurants and entertainment venues for recruits on impermissible visits. Hotel rooms were paid in cash by a UT staffer before the recruit arrived. Restaurant and entertainment tabs were paid in cash by a staffer after the recruit left the establishment. Student workers were a popular choice for both tasks. On Oct. 4, 2020, Boone suggested that a specific staffer stop by a local restaurant and pay the tab after she confirmed the recruit was no longer there. The staffer’s name was redacted, suggesting he was a student worker. Gunn didn’t think he was the right one for the job. Boone agreed by texting what appeared to be an inside joke. “He is like a Sugar Daddy that launders money from Nieds (assistant coach Brian Niedermeyer),” Boone said. “Always comes through but it ain’t his pockets hurting.” In November 2022, Niedermeyer claimed that text was a reference to his generosity because he gave large cash gifts to recruiting staffers for their birthdays, Christmas, spring break trips and other events. Exclusive coverage: Tennesse, Jeremy Pruitt learn NCAA penalties Vols avoid bowl ban as NCAA hammers Jeremy Pruitt for recruiting violations Casey Pruitt, Jeremy Pruitt's wife, avoids show cause for role in scandal Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. Twitter @AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.