Tennessee Football assistant handed six-month show-cause
A six-month recruiting show-cause is coming to Tennessee Football assistant coach Jay Graham from his time at Texas A&M.
The NCAA handed a six-month show-cause to Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M for recruiting violations, and while the SEC team is a long way from Knoxville, Tennessee football will still suffer from the show-cause.
That’s because Tennessee assistant Jay Graham has also been given a six-month show-cause from the NCAA from his time at TAMU. The time period of the recruiting infractions came between January 2018 and February 2019, according to the NCAA Committee on Infractions.
This new report has given rival fans a reason to look at Tennessee’s recent recruiting success and why the Vols were so successful in gaining verbal commitments.
Fisher and Graham were ruled to have made impermissible recruiting contact with a prospect. This came out after a report and Texas A&M confirmed that Graham was the assistant coach involved in the infractions.
Texas A&M says the assistant coach involved in the recruiting violations at A&M with Jimbo Fisher is former assistant Jay Graham, who's now at Tennessee. Graham will also have a 6-month show-cause thru the end of 2020.
— Alex Miller (@AlexMill20) July 2, 2020
This isn’t the first time Tennessee has been involved in a show-cause from the NCAA. Most recently, former Vol basketball head coach Donnie Tyndall was handed a show-cause from the NCAA for recruiting violations.
Fisher and Graham’s violations are as follows: “a previously served nine-day ban on phone calls, emails, or texts with prospects in January 2020; a reduction in off-campus recruiting contact days by three for the December 2019 through January 2020 contact period; a ban on all off-campus recruiting activities for the fall 2020 contact period; and additional one-on-one rules education.”
One has to wonder if Graham brought any of those bad habits from Texas A&M to Tennessee. With A&M building some of its own momentum, this has to hurt them a bit on the recruiting trail. If Fisher isn’t recruiting, some recruits might look elsewhere if Ed Orgeron, Nick Saban, or Dabo Swinney are in their living rooms.
Next. Could Tennessee Basketball be a top-ten team in 2020?. dark
I know we’ve seen recruits show off hundreds of dollars or new cars or new shiny jewelry after they committed with a top-tier team, yet the NCAA doesn’t do anything about it. All I can hope for is that Tennessee isn’t cheating because if they are, then they’re going to be the ones to get caught. The NCAA won’t touch the current elite college football programs.