After all these years, a firm answer.
GRUMORS!!! Remember that?
As it turns out, Jon Gruden really was a candidate for the Tennessee job at one point. The veteran coach joined Barstool Sports this week and appeared on Pardon My Take. Gruden was of course asked about the Tennessee job that he apparently flirted with. Thanks to our own former contributor Conner Knapp (Big T) for getting the question to him.
How close was Jon Gruden to taking the Tennessee Job? pic.twitter.com/16S3FQQeYp
— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) November 15, 2024
“My wife cheered at Tennessee, I love Tennessee. I was a graduate coach there, and I did talk to the Athletic Director. 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.”
“At that time I was having so much fun on Monday Night Football with Mike Tirico I couldn’t take any other job. To be in the thought process is always exciting. And hell, Tennessee was one that is really close to my heart. I almost did consider pulling the trigger there.”
Tirico and Gruden worked together from 2011 through 2014. That would mean Gruden spoke with Tennessee during the 2012 coaching search, which resulted in the program hiring Butch Jones away from Cincinnati.
The Grumors really got going during the insane coaching search of 2017 though. Flight trackers, rumored meetings in Tampa — it all felt real for a day or two. Gruden ultimately ended up taking the Raiders job after nine years away from the league. Tennessee ended up with Phillip Fulmer as AD and Jeremy Pruitt as the head football coach.
It’s really amazing to think back to that time and then look and see how far this entire athletics department has come. The hire of Danny White was really the moment where everything changed, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing anytime soon.