I think we both know he probably knew about it, but the idea that he looks bad because he wasn't involved at all is kind of hard for me to follow. If he didn't know about it, then he's clean in all of this. That seems unlikely of course but there's a big difference between, "it's all his fault" and "he had nothing to do with it". Obviously he doesn't look good, but if there's a lot of distance between this doesn't look good to his career is over.
As far as ruin his career, what part of Tennessee firing him with cause and saying it was all his fault isn't ruining his career? You and others were at that point in time of the opinion he was too toxic to be hired due to that. At this point he's out millions and can't be hired. It seems to me Tennessee backed him into a corner, they chose not to pay him and to publicly admit guilt just to avoid paying him. That's 100% Tennessee's doing. I think it's also extremely unlikely that Tennessee's version is accurate and Pruitt claims to have proof it isn't.
Aranda is just a radically different situation. He started coaching on the FBS level in 2003, he got his first FBS DC job in 2010, became an assistant head coach in 2016. He was making 2.5 million already. Pruitt had an amazing resume as a DC, he had a terrible resume for a head coaching candidate. Aranda goes from 2003 to his first head coaching job in 2020. Pruitt goes from first on field FBS job in 2010 to head coach in 2018, making virtually as much as Aranda is making by the way.
Pruitt has never been an assistant coach, he'd never been a head coach. I said when the hire happened it felt spiteful, like Tennessee couldn't get their guy so they got Alabama's guy. The thing is they just tossed a giant bag of money, frankly far far more than Pruitt was worth in his lap and he took it. Had he stayed he might have become a viable head coaching candidate, but just being a good DC does not automatically make someone a good head coach. We'd not even seen him long enough at one stop to figure out how good he was at recruiting.
From start to finish this is a collection of stupid from Tennessee. Why they did it, to save money, to hurt Alabama, because they wanted a patsy, we can go over all kinds of possibilities but this is a Tennessee creation.