Jeremy Pruitt is planning to appeal the 6-year show cause penalty he received from the NCAA last week, according to a report Wednesday by KnoxNews.com.

Pruitt, who was fired by Tennessee in January 2021 as the NCAA investigation began, is accused of heading up a scheme that resulted in 18 major violations and nearly 200 individual infractions during his 3-year tenure as head coach. In addition to his 6-year show cause, Pruitt will also be automatically suspended from football activities for one year if he’s hired by an NCAA member school prior to July 15, 2029.

Among other things, Pruitt is accused of personally delivering and arranging for cash payments to multiple recruits. The NCAA also found that the Volunteers were hosting recruits on campus during the NCAA-mandated COVID dead period in 2020.

Pruitt has until July 29 to notify the NCAA Committee on Infractions in writing he plans to appeal the sanctions. The appeals process could take several months.

In addition to the suspension, any school that chooses to hire Pruitt during the term of his show-cause penalty would have to receive approval from the NCAA. Pruitt spent the 2021 season on the staff of the NFL’s New York Giants, but has been out of football since then.

Several other former Tennessee staffers — including assistant coaches Brian Niedermeyer, Shelton Felton and Derrick Ansley — received show-cause orders from the NCAA for their roles in the violations. All are currently working outside college football, so it’s not yet clear if any of them have plans to appeal.

Pruitt, a Rainsville native, played safety at Alabama under Gene Stallings in the mid-1990s. After several years as a high school coach, he joined Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide staff in an off-field role in 2007, and later served as defensive coordinator in addition to stints at Georgia and Florida State.