Former Alabama player mocks Tennessee amid new NCAA investigation while praising Jeremy Pruitt

A couple of weeks before the news broke, Lowery tweeted that he wants to see Pruitt get back into college coaching, while taking a shot at Tennessee. 

"Don’t let that rocky top clown show fool you -- Fulmer and [company] wanted him out and made him the fall guy to avoid paying his buyout," wrote Lowery. "Pruitt is an ELITE football mind and coach, will be an enormous asset to whoever 'breaks the ice' and hires him."

I don't think Lowery is wrong that Pruitt should be able to coach again. I've always thought the penalties he received -- a six-year show cause ban and an automatic one-year suspension if a program hires him -- were a bit severe. Pruitt and his staff were accused of handing out around $60,000 in impermissible benefits. Most of that was to help with rent, deposits, doctors bills, etc. It pales in comparison to the NIL deals being made a couple of years later. 

At the same time, the staff under Pruitt was incredibly sloppy and made it easy to uncover the violations, which put Tennessee in a bad spot. 

As for Phillip Fulmer, he lost his job as Tennessee's athletic director because of the Pruitt investigation, though he was able to go out gracefully and with a buyout. 

Lowery, who played at Alabama when Pruitt was the Tide's defensive backs coach, should probably be more of an ally to Tennessee in this new NCAA investigation. He's a fool if he thinks Alabama hasn't used NIL for pay-for-play.