Popular sports radio host Dan Patrick may have dropped a bombshell regarding the severity of the recruiting violations Tennessee committed, ultimately leading to Jeremy Pruitt’s firing on Monday.

Tuesday, just one day after Tennessee terminated Pruitt with cause due to alleged NCAA violations, Patrick reported that Tennessee got “sloppy” in its recruiting process. The radio host said that the Volunteers staff had “bag men” paying recruits by putting money in McDonald’s bags.

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Here’s what Patrick had to say about Tennessee’s alleged situation:

“I was told that there are a few things that are going on here and I asked my source ‘How did they get these assistant head coaches on recruiting violations?’ And he said ‘Well, they put money into McDonald’s bags and gave them to the recruits when they came on campus. Some of the campus visits were not organized or they were not above board, but they were handing out cash…So you literally had bag men and they put the cash in McDonald’s bags and handed it to the recruits.’

“My source said they were so in-your-face with it — they weren’t even trying to hide it. And that’s where my source said ‘Tennessee got sloppy, Georgia got sloppy, but there’s been no word on the NCAA looking at Georgia. But Tennessee, they got sloppy and they were handing out cash in McDonalds bags.’”

That would explain Tennessee’s improvement on the recruiting front, wouldn’t it?

Pruitt was terminated after three seasons as the head coach at Tennessee. He compiled a record of 16-19 and was 10-16 in SEC play, with the Vols playing in just one bowl game.