Here’s what it would cost to fire Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee football coaching staff

When Tennessee hired Jeremy Pruitt as football coach in December 2017, university leaders wanted to stop cycling through coaches every few years.

Tennessee showed faith in Pruitt by awarding him a contract extension in September that included a bonus and a raise beginning in 2021.

But the Vols have regressed in Pruitt’s third season.

Tennessee (2-4) is on a four-game losing streak entering a game against No. 21 Auburn (4-2) on Saturday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN). With a loss Saturday, the Vols would have their longest losing streak since starting the 1988 season 0-6.

Firing Pruitt and his coaching staff would be a costly move at a bad time, with the athletic department cash-strapped because of the pandemic.

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Pruitt, thanks to his recent extension, is under contract until Jan. 31, 2026. That’s five more seasons. If Tennessee fired him on, say, Dec. 1, it would owe Pruitt a buyout of $12.88 million.

A head coaching change means a staff change, too. Add in sweeping staff buyouts, and UT would owe about $19.2 million in severance payments for a full football staff change, using Dec. 1 as the firing date, according to a Knox News analysis of the staff’s contracts and buyout terms.

That figure includes more than $830,000 in severance owed to Jimmy Brumbaugh, the defensive line coach Pruitt fired Oct. 18, just four games into Brumbaugh’s first season on the job.

For Tennessee’s assistants, if they get a new job while they’re owed severance, UT is on the hook only for the difference in pay, a concept called mitigation of damages. For Pruitt, though, he gets the full payout even if he’s hired by someone else.

By comparison, Tennessee owed Butch Jones and his staff more than $13 million in severance when he was fired in November 2017. Tennessee is still paying severance to Jones, whose contract finally concludes at the end of February. Even after some mitigation of damages, Tennessee will have paid out more than $10 million in severance for Jones’ staff.

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Behind Pruitt, offensive coordinator Jim Chaney has the largest buyout. Chaney is one of the nation’s top-paid assistant coaches, earning $1.6 million this season. His salary increases to $1.7 million on Feb. 1. He’s under contract through Jan. 31, 2022.

Sticking with Dec. 1 as a termination date, Chaney would be owed $1.97 million in severance. Chaney and defensive coordinator Derrick Ansley ($1.17 million buyout, as of Dec. 1) are the only assistants whose buyouts would exceed $675,000.

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The contracts for assistants Will Friend, Tee Martin and Brian Niedermeyer are set to expire Jan. 31. All other assistants, and strength and conditioning coach A.J. Artis, are under contract through next season.

Shelling out millions in severance could create bad optics given that the athletic department instituted pay cuts for employees earning more than $50,000 annually. Those pay cuts took effect Nov. 1 and will run through June 30.

The pay cuts affected 155 at-will employees, and 18 contract employees also agreed to a salary reduction, despite their salary being protected by a contract. Every Tennessee head coach except Pruitt agreed to a salary reduction during that time period. Pruitt was not asked to take a pay cut because he opted to forgo a raise for the 2020 contract year, and the athletic department considered that to be his contribution to the cost-savings plan.

Martin and Jay Graham from Pruitt’s staff accepted a pay cut. The other seven assistants, plus Artis, declined a pay cut, making them the only athletic department employees who rejected a pay cut that was requested.

South Carolina fired coach Will Muschamp on Sunday. Muschamp is owed more than $13 million in severance, demonstrating that, even in a costly pandemic, some athletic departments will be willing to face down buyouts to try to jump-start a struggling problem.

Nonetheless, a make-or-break 2021 season for Pruitt seems a more likely outcome than a head coaching change this year, given that Tennessee athletics has projected a $40 million loss in revenue, because of the pandemic.

Blake Toppmeyer covers University of Tennessee football. Email him at blake.toppmeyer@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer. If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it. Current subscribers can click here to join Blake’s subscriber-only text group offering updates and analysis on Vols football.