Former Tennessee Volunteers basketball coach Bruce Pearl left Knoxville in a cloud of shame following severe NCAA penalties levied against the program for recruiting violations.
Over the course of the past few months, rumors circulated that Pearl may return to coaching more quickly than previously thought, perhaps with the Texas Legends of the NBA’s Developmental League.
H.T. Hackney and Co. is a wholesale grocery distributor based in Knoxville run by CEO Bill Sansom, who is a former trustee for the University of Tennessee.
Following a three-year coaching suspension handed down by the NCAA to Pearl earlier this week, it’s not surprising he decided to step away from the game for a while.
Bruce Pearl will get a second chance to coach somewhere down the road. When the cloud of the current allegations blows over, it’ll be easy enough to forget past transgressions and remember what he did to help the Tennessee program gain national notoriety, legal, or not.
It’s our nature as Americans to give those who were once in the spotlight and did something to damage their reputation, a another shot to repair it.
Just ask Mike Vick.
Bruce Pearl will work the halls at Hackney the same way he worked living rooms on the recruiting trails, but not for long.
Coaching’s in his blood and he’ll get another chance, somewhere, sometime, within the next few years.
You can count on it.