College football fans of a certain age will look back with fondness upon a time when Jon Gruden was linked with what felt like every major coaching vacancy. The conversations surrounded Gruden from the time he left the NFL in 2008 to when he returned with the Raiders in 2018.
Despite all of the rumors, Gruden somehow never ended up taking a head coaching job in the college ranks. But that doesn’t mean that he didn’t come close. Gruden recently revealed on an episode of Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take that he turned a chance to coach the Tennessee Volunteers in 2018.
“My wife cheered at Tennessee. I love Tennessee. I was a graduate coach there, and I did talk to the Athletic Director,” Jon Gruden said. “And I don’t look up to anybody more than I look up to Peyton Manning and Kenny Chesney. Those are two of my favorite Tennessee guys. And I was very interested in doing it.”
Gruden didn’t say when he turned down the job. Tennessee had coaching vacancies in 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2018. But he did say that he was working with Mike Tirico on Monday Night Football at the time.
“At that time I was having so much fun on Monday Night Football with Mike Tirico I couldn’t take any other job,” he said. “To be in the thought process is always exciting as hell, Tennessee was one that is really close to my heart. I almost did consider pulling the trigger there.”
Gruden and Tirico worked together from 2011-14. So it seems most likely that Gruden got an offer prior to the 2013 season. If that’s the case, the Vols went on to hire Butch Jones, who went just 34-27 in five seasons in Knoxville.
Gruden began his coaching as a graduate assistant at Tennessee under legendary head coach Johnny Majors in 1986 and 1987. But he left college for the pros in 1992 and never went back. Now it seems that door has closed for good. But it turns out we came much closer to it happening than anybody knew.
The post Jon Gruden Claims That He Was One Difficult Decision Away From Coaching Tennessee Volunteers appeared first on BroBible.
Jon Gruden Claims That He Was One Difficult Decision Away From Coaching Tennessee Volunteers
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