Entering what is unequivocally a must-win campaign for his tenure atop the Maryland Terrapins football program, coach Mike Locksley is turning to a familiar face to fill a key defensive role.
Several sources tell FootballScoop that Maryland and Locksley are targeting ex-University of Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt to join the Terps defensive staff in “a key defensive assistant position.”
The talks between Locksley and Pruitt are known throughout the Maryland football department, sources told FootballScoop. The deal is not yet finalized, but multiple sources with direct knowledge confirmed Pruitt’s candidacy to FootballScoop.
A former national championship-winning defensive coordinator who rose to acclaim when he transitioned from Hoover (Alabama) High School to Nick Saban’s University of Alabama coaching staff, the 51-year-old Pruitt was fired from his perch atop the University of Tennessee football program in January 2021 amidst an NCAA probe into allegations of pervasive flaunting of the rules in Pruitt’s Vols program.
Tennessee fired Pruitt, sough to mitigate damages against the school and also refused to pay out the remaining money owed to Pruitt after UT fired him “with cause.” Additionally, Pruitt was hit with a mutli-year “Show-Cause” punishment from the NCAA, its most severe individual punishment that serves as a de factor banishment or forces a school and individual to “show cause” as to why he or she should be allowed to coach.
Pruitt, however, was seen as among college football’s shining stars as a defensive coordinator, and he won five NCAA national championships during his time as a top assistant coach — four with Alabama and in 2013 as the defensive coordinator for Jimbo Fisher at Florida State.
A year ago, Pruitt sued the NCAA for $100 million and also received a temporary injunction from a Dekalb County (Alabama) judge that allowed Pruitt to return to coaching at the NCAA level; he had worked in the prep ranks in Alabama, in time, after his dismissal on Rocky Top.
Pruitt also further battled the NCAA in court in December 2025 and captured another legal victory, one that aided him as he worked with Charles Kelly — Jacksonville State’s head coach and a former Pruitt coordinator at Tennessee, as well as previous colleague in multiple stops. Jacksonville State had petitioned to allow Pruitt to work and circumvent the NCAA’s six-year “Show-Cause” penalty, one not set to expire until much later this decade.
Locksley is seeking to rebound at Maryland as he’s deep into his second stint as head coach atop the Terps program.
A Washington, D.C., native, Locksley delivered a trio of bowl berths and winning seasons at Maryland from 2021-23 but has since seen the program stumble to near the bottom of the Big Ten Conference.
Maryland posted consecutive 4-8 seasons in 2024-25; additionally, it has posted just an 2-16 mark combined the past two seasons in Big Ten play and overall has lost 13 of its past 17 games.
The Terps are scheduled to open their 2026 season at home Sept. 5 against Football Championship Subdivision program Hampton before traveling a week later to UConn, which is transitioning to a new era under ex-Toledo head coach Jason Candle. Jim Mora Jr. departed the UConn program to take over at Colorado State after last season.