Former Tennessee assistant coach Brian Niedermeyer, who was a key part of the Jeremy Pruitt recruiting scandal, is headed to the NFL. The Denver Broncos hired Niedermeyer as a member of their defensive staff on Wednesday according to 247sports Matt Zenitz.
Niedermeyer spent three years as an assistant coach at Tennessee under Pruitt, the first two as tight ends coach and the last year as inside linebackers coach.
The assistant coach was one of the main parties wrapped up in the recruiting scandal that ended Pruitt’s tenure with the NCAA finding Niedermeyer paid high school recruits. The college athletics governing body slapped Niedermeyer with a five-year show-cause penalty that ends following the 2027 season.
More From RTI:ESPN Names Pick for Tennessee’s Biggest Recruiting Target This Spring
Niedermeyer has coached in high school since Tennessee terminated his contract in January 2021. He spent a brief stint as the defensive coordinator at football power IMG Academy before spending time as defensive coordinator at Tuscaloosa County High.
TCHS is just 10 miles from the University of Alabama, where Niedermeyer worked with Pruitt before coming to Tennessee, and the school promoted the former Volunteer assistant to head coach earlier this offseason.
Instead, Niedermeyer is headed to the NFL. He joins Sean Payton’s staff in Denver as the Broncos look to build off of a bounce back 2024 season where they made the playoffs with rookie quarterback Bo Nix. It’s Niedermeyer’s first NFL job in his career.
3 Responses
I feel like Pruitt, et all were all a Trojan Horse cleverly inserted into the VOLS football program. Pruitt was a very accomplished defensive coach but, as a person, was just a very base, course, arrogant..yet..incredibly ignorant about a lot of things.. person. He…they… spent a lot of their time denigrating the players and program overall and were highly destructive to the program. They had their moments and they did advance the ball in some ways despite all I just said, but he was just not head coach material, bottom line. He lacked many of the ingredients needed to be a solid head coach…namely good character and good judgment. This impaired his ability to lead, which is what enabled Neidiemeir to what he did. All I can say about Neideimeir is he did what he did and paid the price. I hold no grudge him and wish him welll. As for Pruitt…..I’m stilll working on full forgiveness of him. .I don’t like him or people like him in general so he’s more of a struggle….
It’s been hard to not feel like Pruitt, et all were all a Trojan Horse cleverly inserted into the VOLS football program. Pruitt was a very accomplished defensive coach but, as a person, was just a very base, course, arrogant..yet..incredibly ignorant about a lot of things.. person. He…they… spent a lot of their time denigrating the players and program overall and were highly destructive to the program. They had their moments and they did advance the ball in some ways despite all I just said, but he was just not head coach material, bottom line. He lacks many of the ingredients needed to be a solid head coach…namely arrogance…which damaged his people skills, good character and good judgment. All these things impaired his ability to lead, which is what enabled Neidiemeir to what he did. All I can say about Neideimeir is he did what he did and paid the price. I hold no grudge him and wish him welll. As for Pruitt…..I’m stilll working on full forgiveness. I sill don’t have any positive feelings about him. I don’t like him or people like him in general so he’s more of a struggle….
It is hard to not feel like Pruitt and Niedermeyer, et all were a Trojan horse inserted by Alabama (we even had an Alabama A.D. for a while that infected the culture) into the entire Tennessee athletic program. Pruitt, his defensive coach achievements acknowledged, lacked the ingredients needed to be a solid head coach. He had SOME folky ish people skills but they were more than neutralized by his arrogance, his shocking ignorance about many things, lack of consistently good judgment, lack of solid core principles and character. All of those deficits allowed Niedermeyer to do what he did. I feel no grudge against Niedermeyer. He did what hd did and paid the price and just wish him well. As for Pruitt, that’s a more complicated feeling. I feel like most true Tennessee fans feel about him…that he spent a lot of time denigrating our players and the TN program overall. He came across and someone who felt like he and all things Alabama were the standard and he looked down his nose at us. He did have his few moments….and he did advance the ball in some ways while he was there, but, overall, he was toxic and destructive to the program. I still don’t like him or have any good feelings about him. (the closest I get is the 23-23 win over Indiana) That’s all I have to say about that……Forrest Gump…