Former NFL coach Jon Gruden has been away from head coaching since 2021, but the fire to compete apparently still burns strong. Gruden will turn 62 late next week, but he’s been spending his preseason going around the nation and visiting several college and pro teams. One of the highlights of the trips is that Gruden shows his competitive chops and speaks frankly about what motivates him.
“I come to Georgia because this is what I wanted to see. And I sit there and I fantasize. I’m fantasizing on the field. I said, ‘Man, I wish I was coaching against the SEC.’ I want to come to Georgia between the hedges. I’m fantasizing about going up against Kirby Smart. I’m an offensive coach, you see, I’m over there fantasizing about coming down here and beating Georgia in the hedges,” Gruden recently told the Georgia football team (19:09).
Gruden’s admission of his fantasy life of college football is interesting for several reasons. Not only has he not been a head coach for four years, he hasn’t been a college coach since 1991, when he was the wide receivers coach at Pittsburgh. He was rumored to be a serious candidate for a job in the SEC, where he would have faced Kirby Smart.
The Jon Gruden to Tennessee Rumor History
Gruden began his coaching career as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Tennessee in 1986 and 1987. Tennessee fell into a funk in the 2010s, around the time that Gruden had become comfortable outside of coaching as an analyst on Monday Night Football. In 2017, the Vols cut ties with former coach Butch Jones and apparently made a serious run at Gruden.
Gruden himself recently revealed that he had seriously considered the job. How seriously? Well, Tennessee alums Peyton Manning and Kenny Chesney had both weighed in to encourage Gruden to be the next Vols head coach. Gruden added that he had started assembling a potential staff for Tennessee had he decided to take the job.
Gruden met his wife, Cindy, while working at Tennessee and confirmed that he remains a fan of the program. When Gruden elected to turn down the Vols, Tennessee instead hired Jeremy Pruitt, who was 16-19 in three seasons at the program. After his departure, Tennessee settled on Josh Heupel, who has a 37-15 mark and has led Tennessee to the College Football Playoff.
Despite turning down the Vols, Gruden did return to coaching, but went just 22-31 in three seasons and the start of a fourth year with the Oakland/Los Vegas Raiders before he resigned in 2021.
Possible SEC vacancies?
Word of Gruden’s interest likely made a few SEC schools consider the future of coaches on the apparent hot seat. Among a multitude of SEC schools that could conceivably offer Gruden the chance to match wits with Smart are Oklahoma and Auburn. Both Brent Venables at OU and Hugh Freeze at Auburn have struggled through subpar tenures, with both schools coming off losing seasons.
Further, both schools are the type of high-income competitive programs that could probably cough up enough money to make Gruden mull over those fantasies of competing against Kirby Smart. Time will tell.
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