College football insider tells wild story about the way Jeremy Pruitt found out he was being fired by Tennessee

"The day that Jeremy Pruitt was fired from Tennessee, (Chancellor) Donde Plowman had called for Jeremy to come into the office with (then athletic director) Phillip (Fulmer)," explained Wallace. "They get into the office and Donde Plowman is sitting there like 'Jeremy, you know, these are a lot of violations. I don't know how we can get around this'. Jeremy's pleading his case, 'I didn't do anything here. I'm not the one doing this. These are my assistants. I didn't know this was going on'. And Jeremy point blank asked Donde and Phillip 'am I getting fired?'"

According to Wallace's recounting of the story, Pruitt was told, in no uncertain terms, that he wasn't getting fired that day. 

And then as Pruitt walked out the door, he received a text from a local media member telling him that he was, in fact, being fired. 

"Jeremy Pruitt left that 15 minute meeting, walked out the door, as he was walking out the door he gets a text from a local media personality in Knoxville that says 'hey Jeremy, just wanted to let you know you're getting fired today'. And that pretty much set off a chain of events [to] where we are now," explained Wallace. "And it's one of the crazier things because Jeremy had a pulse, I think, for what was about to happen. But the fact that he was just told 'man, you're good, no, we're gonna figure it out, like, you're not getting fired right now'. Then all of a sudden it gets out -- it was Martin Luther King Jr day when he got fired -- and all of a sudden, he finds out he's fired from a local media personality in the Knoxville area. I mean, you can't make this stuff up."

It was certainly a bizarre ending to one of the more unfruitful eras of Tennessee football. But fortunately for the Vols, the disastrous end of the Pruitt era led to the hiring of Heupel, who has quickly proven to be a perfect fit for the Volunteers.