Tennessee dismisses LB Banks after arrest footage surfaces

Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt dismissed linebacker Jeremy Banks from the program Friday, days after troubling video footage of Banks' arrest at a traffic stop surfaced.

"I have made the decision to remove Jeremy Banks from our football program," Pruitt said in a statement obtained by The Athletic's David Ubben. "While I will continue to support Jeremy in the next steps of his life, information I recently received made it clear that this decision is in the best interest of the football program and the university."

Police arrested Banks on the night of Sept. 15 after he was found to be in possession of a suspended license with an active warrant for failure to appear in court on an earlier charge for driving with a suspended license, according to Mark Heim of AL.com.

Banks called Pruitt, who questioned why the officer needed to arrest the sophomore in a phone conversation captured by a body cam.

"The state of Tennessee issues the warrant," the officer explained to Pruitt. "I have to take him in. I have no choice about that. If it was just a suspended license, I can have discretion on that."

Pruitt told the officer "this is the silliest shit I've ever seen in my life," adding he had worked at four other schools and "never had no crap like this except for here."

In the police car, Banks told the officer he "wouldn't want to see me without that badge." The Memphis native also told a woman accompanying the officer that "where I'm from, we shoot at cops."

Pruitt clarified his intentions Wednesday after many interpreted his exchange with the officer as an attempt to help Banks avoid the arrest.

"There's no place I've ever coached where anybody has cut anybody a break," he said, according to CBS Sports' Barrett Sallee. "The point was, the warrant was issued and had been issued for five weeks or four weeks there, and I wasn't aware of it.

"And that's something that we have to do a better job, to focus on our players so you don't have a speeding ticket or anything that turns into something like this. So we have to do a better job as a staff to know what's going on and that's something we have to have a relationship to get it figured out."

Banks had seven tackles and two interceptions in three appearances for the Volunteers this season.