Jon Gruden opens up about past interest in Tennessee coaching job
By Rolando Rosa
Published:
Jon Gruden recently opened up about his past interest in becoming Tennessee‘s head coach back in 2012. The Super Bowl champion head coach discussed the history of the situation on Monday during an appearance at the Knoxville Quarterback Club.
At the time, Gruden was working as an analyst on ESPN’s Monday Night Football, which he greatly enjoyed.
“I was very interested in doing it but my job was too good at that time,” Gruden said, per the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Tennessee went on to hire Butch Jones, who lasted until 2017. The ex-Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach admitted that the timing wouldn’t have been right for him to transition to the college level.
“I really felt if I was a college coach back in that time, I would have Tennessee on probation in a couple weeks,” Gruden said. “But now with the landscape, maybe coming back to be a college coach would be good.”
Gruden wasn’t interested in recruiting, something that college coaches are more able to delegate now in the current landscape.
“I didn’t want to do that,” Gruden said. “I would rather study football. I would rather come up with new drills, new formations, new formations, new audibles. I love that. I didn’t want to waste my time recruiting. But now you hire a personnel staff and it is very much like an NFL personnel department.”
Right now, Gruden works for Barstool Sports. Since he’s a legend, his name will continue to pop up in rumors. Whether Gruden actually ever decides to take a college gig is yet to be seen but is a fascinating possibility.
