As Tennessee embarks on its fourth coaching search in ten years, here’s a quick look at Vols coaching candidate Jon Gruden, the white whale on Rocky Top.
Jon Gruden’s coaching experience (54 years old)
Vols graduate assistant, 1986-87. College assistant at Southeast Missouri State and Pacific 1988-89. NFL assistant 1990-97, including offensive coordinator at Philadelphia. NFL head coach 1998-2008 at Oakland and Tampa Bay.
GRT college football coach taxonomy: Pro, On Hiatus.
Why the Tennessee Vols might want Jon Gruden
Gruden is the Holy Gru-l of Tennessee coaching searches. His name has come up in each of the past two searches that yielded Derek Dooley and Butch Jones. He’s basically the guy who could completely unify the fan base. He is a former graduate assistant at UT under Johnny Majors, his wife is a former Tennessee cheerleader, his son is a UT student, he owns land in Jefferson County. HIS WIFE WANTS TO BE CLOSE TO FAMILY! HE LOVES THE VOLS! [By now, you’ve heard it all]. He’d give Tennessee that instant-credibility hire that could make the Vols a national story again. In a good way.
Why the Tennessee Vols might not want Jon Gruden
Of course, UT would love to have the Super Bowl winning head coach and current Monday Night Football analyst, but how serious is he about coaching? He makes a ton of money as one of ESPN’s leading analysts, and he has a cushy, stress-free job. He doesn’t know anything about coaching in college, recruiting, or compliance, so he’d have to beef up his support staff in those areas. Plus, he really loves Tennessee. Would he want to take the chance of the highs and lows of rebuilding UT to a powerhouse? That’s a major question.
He is not in my top 3 but this would be a home run. His name alone would give us top 5 recruiting classes for at least the next 3 years
Short term this would be a buzz-worthy hire. Long term I think it would be terrible. Everything I’ve read says that he’s not great at player development. He’s a super X’s and O’s guy and his strength is scheme. Problem is that college football is more about player development than scheming.
Of course, maybe he can hire an awesome staff that covers his weaknesses. If that happens then perhaps thing would work out long term as well.