By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          Tennessee’s recruitment of Bleckley County offensive line standout Amarius Mims is part of the investigation that led to the firing of head coach Jeremy Pruitt and several staffers on Tuesday.

          Tennessee was a finalist for Mims, among the top recruits in the country. He committed to Georgia in October, signed in December, and is in Athens, enrolled.

          ESPN.com reported before Christmas that the recruitment of Mims was high on the list of topics in the Tennessee’s in-house investigation, launched by its compliance department. Interviews began in November.

          Former Central and Macon County head coach Larry Harold is one of those dismissed. Harold was in quality control and worked as an offensive analyst. His next job will be his seventh in less than a decade. He spent three seasons at Macon County, where he went 19-15 and coached Roquan Smith, and then went to Brunswick for two seasons, Central for one, and Americus-Sumter for one.

          He left for Kentucky State, where he stayed for one year before joining Tennessee in September.

          Former Crisp County head coach Shelton Felton was also fired. Felton has worked at Crisp County as an assistant, then Dooly County and Colquitt County, back to Crisp County for two seasons as head coach, one season at Chattanooga, then to Tennessee in 2018 as a defensive quality control analyst before a season at Akron with linebackers and defensive line.

          He rejoined the Vols last February. He was reportedly headed to Auburn in 2017 after the Tigers signed Markaviest Bryant of Crisp County, but that violated a rule regarding a coach and player going from the same high school to the same college.

          Ironically, Bryant announced only a few days ago that he was transferring to Tennessee. Auburn assistant Kevin Steele was hired last week by Pruitt, and is now the interim head coach.