Mark Stoops Was Not Surprised That Tennessee Was Caught Cheating

By Oliver Hamilton -

The athletic director of the University of Tennessee, Phil Fulmer, has retired as the university announced its decision to terminate the head football coach Jeremy Pruitt. The cause for all this is the aftermath of an internal investigation that revealed the program committed several Level I and Level II recruiting violations. Apparently, the cheating was not a very well kept secret, as Mark Stoops, the head coach of the University of Kentucky's football team, said he was not surprised to learn about Tennessee’s cheating.

Mark Stoops Said He Was Grateful That the Cheating Was Revealed

Mark Stoops Was Not Surprised That Tennessee Was Caught Cheating

Although Mark Stoops remarked he had to be careful in his response, he stated that he definitely saw that the recruiting violations were coming to light. In his interview with Kentucky Sports Radio, Stoops said he was grateful that the whole thing came to light and was not at all surprised to find out about it.

The Tennessee Volunteers Were Handing Recruits Cash In McDonald's Bags

Handing a McDonald's paper bag — Mark Stoops Was Not Surprised That Tennessee Was Caught Cheating

Mark Stoops did not take the opportunity to badmouth the Tennessee Volunteers about the cheating, although it was probably one of the sloppiest in college athletics history. American sportscaster Dan Patrick shared that Tennessee assistant coaches were putting money into McDonald’s bags and giving them to the recruits who came on campus. Apparently, they were not even trying to hide it.

Now, the Tennessee Volunteers are looking for ways to replace the vacated head coach place. Dan Patrick recommended Jason Witten in his Twitter post, and one other name that has reportedly been discussed was Josh Heupel. Danny White, the new Tennessee athletic director, has drastically changed the way the Volunteers search for new people, including the new head coaching search. White will probably try to land a big name as hard as possible in order to energize both the rank-and-file and the donors of the team. With White behind at the wheel, it looks like the Tennessee Volunteers would sustain yet another rebuilding period.