Tennessee player arrested for assault and false imprisonment
University of Tennessee sophomore Ryan Thaxton was arrested Sunday on charges of domestic assault and false imprisonment according to court records obtained by the Knoxville News Sentinel.
The defensive lineman allegedly pushed his girlfriend when she refused to accompany him to a room. He then carried her inside the room and blocked the door when she attempted to leave.
Tennessee has reacted swiftly to the news, suspendeding Thaxton while the investigation is underway.
“The student-athlete has been suspended from all team activities while law enforcement and university investigates,” according to athletic department spokesman Zach Stipe.
Per Jimmy Hyams of radio station WNML in Knoxville, Thaxton’s bond was set at $1,500. He was then released on bond on Monday morning.
Thaxton is due in court on Monday, where he will be arraigned on both counts.
Thaxton did not play in any games in his freshman season but apparently chose not to redshirt as he is listed as a sophomore on Tennessee’s spring roster.
At 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds, Thaxton was expected to push for a prominent position in new coach Jeremy Pruitt’s defensive scheme. After playing defensive end in high school, Thaxton was getting reps at outside linebacker as the Vols now run a 3-4 defense.
Thaxton was a consensus three-star prospect by all of the major recruiting services including 247Sports, Rivals and Scout.com. 247Sports also had him as the No. 38 defensive end in his class and the No. 23 prospect from Virginia.
Thaxton committed to Tennessee in January 2017 but kept his options open as he then visited North Carolina State and Ole Miss. But he stuck with his verbal commitment and signed his letter of intent with the Vols in February before enrolling in June.
SEC Media Day is in Atlanta on Wednesday and Vols coach Jeremy Pruitt should be well-prepped for questions about much more than just Thaxton’s status.
Despite being a coach for more than 20 years, Pruitt has never held a head coaching position, even at the high school level.
The Voluteers are coming off a 4-8 season which is their worst record in, literally, over 100 years. The last time they had a lower winning percentage came in 1909 when they went 1-6-2 in the team’s eighth year of existence.
Butch Jones was fired last year in his fifth season as Vols coach and former Michigan coach, Brady Hoke, finished out the final two games.
Pruitt’s hiring came about largely because of the fiasco that started when Tennessee agreed on the terms of a deal to hire Greg Schiano as its next coach. But due to backlash regarding Schiano’s alleged awareness of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal during his time as an assistant there, the school backed out of the deal.
That’s when Pruitt emerged and became Tennessee’s 24th head or interim head coach. Pruitt’s specialty is on the defensive side of the ball and he spent the last two seasons as Alabama’s defensive coordinator.
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