NIL legislation took over the early morning session at SEC Media Days, but the Tennessee football NCAA punishment came about for Brian Kelly. The LSU head coach fielded questions as part of day one of media days, giving his comments on the investigation.
Kelly is not immune to an NCAA investigation himself, committing recruiting violations during his time at Notre Dame. Now, the violations Kelly committed are on a much lesser scale than those of former head coach Jeremy Pruitt and Tennessee.
Kelly’s violations were strictly contact based, and the Fighting Irish committed three violations. Notre Dame and Kelly were hit with a one-year probation and a $5,000 fine. He also was unable to recruit the prospect in which the violation was committed, and he also had to forfeit certain recruiting dates.
While Pruitt’s punishment is on a different scale, the NCAA investigation was nevertheless a similar process.
“I’m not privy to all of the information because I did not read it,” Kelly said. “I saw that there was some financial sanctions that were given, and I think Coach Pruitt was given some NCAA sanctions. Again, I know it was adjudicated. I’ve been involved in those NCAA processes and they’re painstakingly vetted. In other words, there are so many people that have put in an incredible amount of time to get to the right conclusions. It’s hard for me sitting outside looking in to be a judge of this, other than we knew it was going to be adjudicated in
some fashion.”
The Vols and Tigers aren’t scheduled to matchup in 2023, but the teams squared off in 2022. Tennessee blew out LSU in Death Valley in 2022, with Hendon Hooker throwing for 239 yards on the way to the 40-13 beat down. By the end of the game, the stadium was filled with just Volunteer fans.
LSU and its SEC Media Day representatives mentioned how the loss turned the Tigers’ 2022 season around, which you can read about HERE.
