Joe Judge’s coaching staff is fast becoming the Island Of Misfit College Coaches.
The Giants coach intends to add Jeremy Pruitt to his coaching staff. Pruitt was recently fired by Tennessee following an investigation into potential recruiting violations within the program. The Athletic was first to report Pruitt would be joining the Giants staff.
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One recent report suggested members of Pruitt’s staff were putting money into McDonalds bags and would give them to recruits when they arrived on campus. Pruitt had a 16-19 record in three seasons at Tennessee, a losing mark matched in recent years in Knoxville only by Derek Dooley … who already is on Judge’s staff as a senior offensive assistant.
It’s unclear what role Pruitt will hold on Judge’s staff, but there is an opening coaching outside linebackers, a role vacated when Bret Bielema left for the Illinois head coach job before the end of the Giants season. Bielema hadn’t been a head coach since 2017 when he was fired after a losing tenure at Arkansas.
Pruitt has ties to Judge from when they worked together at Alabama from 2009-11, when Judge was a special teams assistant and Pruitt coached defensive backs. Pruitt has coached defensive backs for most of his career, but was Alabama’s defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach in 2016-17.
The Giants’ current inside linebackers coach also has ties to Pruitt — Kevin Sherrer was Pruitt’s co-defensive coordinator in 2018, and then his special teams coordinator/inside linebackers coach in 2019. They also coached together at Alabama and Hoover High School (in Alabama) early in their coaching careers.
If Pruitt takes Bielema’s old job as outside linebackers coach, that will still leave the Giants with one opening on Judge’s staff: Offensive line coach. Dave DeGuglielmo contract expired at the end of the season and he’s not expected to return.
It’s unclear who Judge is considering for that role, but two potential candidates that make sense include Giants assistant offensive line coach Ben Wilkerson and former Chargers offensive line coach James Campen.
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