Getty Former Crimson Tide safety Will Lowery made known his suggestion for the next Alabama defensive coordinator on January 13 via his Twitter account
Former Crimson Tide defensive back Will Lowery, who played for the 2011 BCS National Champion team under Nick Saban, has made known his suggestion for the next Alabama defensive coordinator via his personal Twitter account.
While sharing a photo of former Alabama defensive backs coach Jeremy Pruitt on January 13, Lowery fully threw his weight behind the fellow Alabama native. “Not even a question,” Lowery wrote. “The man born to coordinate the defense at the capstone. Put the bat signal out and bring him home.”
Pruitt and Lowery’s time at Hoover High School overlapped in 2006, where the former served as defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach before becoming the Director of player development at Alabama and the latter was a star defender. The two were in Tuscaloosa together for Lowery’s entire Crimson Tide career.
Why Jeremy Pruitt May Not Be Alabama Defensive Coordinator
There’s plenty of fans that want to see Jeremy Pruitt hired for the Alabama defensive coordinator role, but there could be roadblocks to the Rainsville-born coach joining Nick Saban’s staff — mainly because of infractions during his Tennessee coaching tenure, including NCAA alleged 18 Level 1 violations from 2018-21 against Pruitt, his wife several members of his coaching and recruiting staff as well as at least one booster.
The Tuscaloosa News’ Nick Kelly explains why Pruitt may not be allowed to coach again. “There could be plenty of obstacles to hire Pruitt to be the next defensive coordinator, and he might not even be eligible,” Kelly wrote. “Pruitt could still get hit with a show-cause order, which means any penalties he receives from his UT tenure could follow him to Alabama or any other school that hires him. A new school can try to “show cause” why those penalties shouldn’t carry over, but it’s unclear whether Alabama would be willing to do that.”
There’s hope, Kelly writes, but not much. “If he gets hit with a show-cause and Alabama still wanted him to be its defensive coordinator, Saban would have to lobby the NCAA to give Pruitt a second chance and let him coach — it could be successful, but that’s not guaranteed.”
Jeremy Pruitt’s Tennessee Violations and Alabama’s Potential Risks
Jeremy Pruitt got into quite a bit of trouble during his time on Rocky Top. While coach at Tennessee, Pruitt was found to have given impermissible benefits to Tennessee recruits and their families totaling up to $60,000.
According to the investigation, Pruitt gave one recruit’s mother either $300 or $400 in a Chick-Fil-A bag and another player’s mother $6,000 for a down payment on a 2017 Nissan Armada. There were more found — that’s the only two that have yet to be made known so far.
The Tuscaloosa News’ Nick Kelly put into perspective the hassle it would ultimately be. “So, hiring Pruitt would be a gamble,” he wrote. “And it would be a risk on multiple levels. Alabama would be gambling the case would be over soon, and it would be gambling he wouldn’t get a show-cause order. If he did, Alabama would be gambling it could beat the order to get him eligible to coach.”