KNOXVILLE — Tennessee’s 2019 football season will kickoff in one week.

Following the Vols’ practice Friday, Jeremy Pruitt addressed Aubrey Solomon’s transfer waiver status of being able to play immediately this season as a non-graduate.

Pruitt said that he would like for the NCAA to further investigate transfer situations case-by-case.

“Unless you actually do some investigating, and sometimes I don’t think you can do it by writing things down, sometimes you need to go to the place, talk to the kids and talk to the people there to get an idea,” Pruitt said.

The second-year Tennessee head coach also mentioned that he has taken the time to write letters on behalf of players that transferred from UT to other schools this offseason.

“We actually had a couple guys, obviously, that have left our program and I wrote letters to the NCAA on why I thought that they should be eligible at the institutions that they’re going to go to,” Pruitt said. “I’m pretty sure they’re all eligible.

“I don’t know if that has anything to do with it, as far as when they decide who is going to be eligible, or who is not. I definitely know that has happened in the past for us.”

Following Pruitt’s remarks on Solomon’s process to become eligible immediately, trial lawyer Tom Mars, who previously discussed transfers with Pruitt, detailed the situation with Vols Wire.

“I have a lot of respect for him and admire how he has been so supportive,” Mars said of Pruitt. “I do not think he did anything wrong by writing those letters, I just would hate for Tennessee fans or any other fans to think that this is a popularity contest.

“This is not a letter writing campaign and letters of support based on my experience has nothing to do with the outcome. Nonetheless, I do admire him and he is an all-around good guy, as I have heard from other head coaches.”

Mars arrived on the college football scene when he represented former Arkansas and Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt. Mars represented Nutt when he pursued an apology from then-Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze. The apology request came on the heels of Freeze questioning Nutt’s character and resulted in findings of the then-Rebel head coach’s trail of an escort call on his university cell phone records. Freeze was fired following the finding.

Mars has since represented the likes of Shea Patterson and Justin Fields whom seeked immediate eligibility as undergraduate transfers.

But each case is different and Mars makes it clear that a lot of information within the process of becoming eligible does not reach the public or even portray what is said on social media.

Mars mentioned that Fields, who transferred from Georgia to Ohio State, was not granted immediate eligibility solely in reference to Bulldogs’ first baseman Adam Sasser having alleged comments directed at the quarterback. Mars said, however, that he received immediate eligibility due to factors that were never known to fans and remain private.

“There has not been a waiver case, and there probably never will be, where the whole story is on social media,” Mars said. “You can only have an informed opinion about these waiver requests if you know the whole story. Nobody on social media knows even half of the story. So, it is sort of frustrating to me that these opinions are uninformed and I think it is unfair for people to throw rocks at the NCAA.”

In reference to Solomon playing a down for Tennessee in 2019, Mars “does not not want to be guilty of offering an uninformed opinion, or be guilty of doing what I see people doing 24/7 on Twitter” since he does not represent the Michigan transfer.

“I hope he gets a waiver because I hope every kid gets a waiver and the ability to transfer at least one time without penalty,” Mars said.