The Tennessee Volunteers are undergoing an internal investigation into some potential impermissible benefits given to players during recruitment.

A side effect of that internal investigation is that the Vols are unable to hire new coaches or rework current contracts, and that’s having a big impact on Jeremy Pruitt’s football staff.

Per ESPN’s Mark Schlabach, 2 current Vol assistants who have contracts that expire at the end of the month haven’t been extended. Meanwhile, Pruitt is unable to fill 2 current vacancies on the staff:

While Tennessee officials wait for the investigation to be completed, the athletics department hasn’t renewed or extended the contracts of assistant coaches, some of whom have deals that expire at the end of this month, including running backs coach Tee Martin and inside linebackers coach Brian Niedermeyer.

The Volunteers also have at least two vacancies after head coach Jeremy Pruitt fired defensive line coach Jimmy Brumbaugh after four games and offensive line coach Will Friend left for South Carolina last month.

Obviously, that’s a big problem for a team that is trying to regroup after a massively disappointing 2020 season. But, a university spokesperson said in a statement that the Vols are taking the investigation seriously:

“We take seriously our institutional commitment to NCAA compliance, and are reviewing regulatory issues that have been brought to our attention,” university spokeswoman Tyra Haag said in a statement this week. “As part of that process, we are currently working with attorneys Kyle Skillman and Michael Glazier with Bond, Schoeneck & King. We will provide additional information when it’s appropriate.”

Will Pruitt be able to recover from this investigation in time to put a competitive staff together for 2021? There are also plenty of rumblings in Knoxville about his job security, so we’ll see what happens on Rocky Top moving forward as January slogs on.