Back in October, Tennessee RB/LB Jeremy Banks was dismissed from the team after video of him using obscenities toward police officers following a September arrest surfaced.

On Monday, Banks was officially welcomed back to the Vols, and is now expected to compete for a starting linebacker job.

Speaking on Zoom, coach Jeremy Pruitt said he’s been proud of the growth Banks has shown as a person over the past 9 months (via KnoxNews.com):

“Jeremy has done a fantastic job over the last 9 months,” Pruitt said on Zoom. “He has been an inspiration to me. For 10 minutes or 20 minutes last year he would love to have back, we removed him from the football team. He didn’t want to leave. He told me, ‘Coach, I came to Tennessee to get a degree and I have embarrassed myself and my family. The only way I can get that back is staying here and that is something I would like to do.’

“We put a plan in place. He has followed everything we have asked him to do. I am proud of him, where he’s at.”

Banks seemingly has owned his mistakes and, in Pruitt’s eyes, has done enough to earn back his spot on the team.

Now, we’ll see what sort of role he carves out for himself this fall.