Since Tennessee fired
Butch Jones on Sunday, I’ve only changed my mind on who his most likely replacement will be about 5 million times. On Monday, as stories like, “Jon Gruden is calling
potential assistants to see if they want to join his staff at Tennessee” and “Gruden
is flying around for free on the Haslam’s private plane” began to break, I started
thinking there was a lot more to the #grumors that I originally thought. But then, yesterday it was reported that Gruden wasn’t interested in the job, and that he HADN’T been
calling potential assistants. And then Paul Finebaum said that a source close to
Gruden told him that Gruden wasn’t interested in coaching again. All of which made me
think there was nothing to the #grumors. But then today, on Mike and Mike, when
asked about the Tennessee job, Gruden gave an ambiguous answer that ended with
him saying “never say never to nothing”. A triple negative? Hell, maybe he has
been talking to and picking up speech patterns from John Currie, who dropped a
double negative two weeks ago when he told Bob Kesling that the surgeons creed
was, “there’s no problem that you can’t make worse by operating”.
And then there’s Florida
State’s Jimbo Fisher, who has allowed his name to be floated out there as a potential replacement for a few jobs. Texas
A&M, who still employs Kevin Sumlin, has apparently been flirting with him,
and a story broke yesterday from “multiple sources” that he’d be interested in
listening to what Tennessee had to offer. Whatever that means.
Dan Mullen gave a
non-committal answer when asked about his interest in the UT job, and it was
reported that the Vols were interested New York Jets defensive coordinator Kacy
Rodgers, who would, of course, be an absolute disastrous hire.
And finally, Chip Kelly,
who, if you believe Twitter, was already supposed to be announced as Florida’s
new coach by now. There was the story about how the tag number of a
University of Florida plane was apparently flagged before it was on its way to Connecticut,
which, as far as I’m concerned, was debunked when Florida’s AD Scott Stricklin
tweeted out a selfie of himself in a UF classroom during the time that flight was supposed to be happening.
All of which brings me to
this: I don’t believe any of these “sources” that claim to have the “inside
scoop” on what’s going on at these major universities. Why would @volfan1998 or
@gatorsforlife who has 25 Twitter followers be more connected to the
innerworkings of the program than someone like Jimmy Hyams, a guy who has
literally been at Tennessee practice every single day for decades? This Chip
Kelly-to-Florida and Jon Gruden-to-Tennessee stuff very well may happen, but it
won’t be because a random UF student tweeted out that he saw Kelly riding on a
golf cart with “men in suits” on campus, or because someone claimed they saw
Gruden house hunting this weekend in Blount County. I think John Currie is going to keep this one as close to the vest as possible, and he basically said as much during the presser where Butch's firing was announced. I think it's a good idea to be skeptical of most everything unless we here it directly from his mouth.
So what can we know for
certain? Not much at this point I don’t think. Like sure, I bet Tennessee has
reached out to Gruden. According to reliable sources (like Hyams), they have in
the past, and I don’t see why they wouldn’t this time around. Is he super
interested? I have no idea. Maybe he just likes the chase, and being wined and
dined and told how great he is. I certainly wouldn’t bet on him taking the job
now though. And I’m not even sure he’s the best possible choice!
This is what I wrote
about Gruden and Tennessee about a month ago:
Honestly,
I’m torn on Gruden. There’s no denying he has an enormous, room-filling
personality, one that would definitely allow him to sell the program big-time
to everyone from a 17 year old recruit to that recruit’s mother to the media to
a big time booster. But he’s also been out of the coaching grind for almost a
decade now. Does he still have the desire to bust his ass like that again? I’m
not saying he doesn’t work hard now, but his life is certainly much simpler now than it
was when he was coaching. He basically prepares for one game a week by watching
film, with the pressure to win completely removed. He then interviews the head
coach and a few players from each team, and then helps call the game on Monday
night. He repeats this cycle for 16 consecutive weeks. And when that’s over, he
sits down with incoming quarterback prospects for “Gruden’s QB Camp”, turns up
the craziness to over 10,000, creates a few soundbites, and then goes home. Oh yeah, and he makes millions
of dollars a year to do this. I mean… why would you give that up if you didn’t
have to? Tennessee is going to be expecting him to work much, much harder than
he currently is, with significantly more pressure, while being unable to pay
him all that much more than what he’s making now. Does he still have the fire
in his belly? Maybe? He’s been out for a decade though, and besides Dick Vermeil, I can’t think of
someone who has been out of coaching for that amount of time who jumped back
into it and became wildly successful. And even Vermeil went back into the pros, where he'd been before. Gruden has never been a college head coach, and hasn't been on a college staff since 1991. And it’s not like he was Vince Lombardi, Tom Landry, or Bill
Belichick when he was in the NFL. When he won the Super Bowl in his first year
with Tampa in 2002, it was because he had one of the greatest defenses of all time, a
group that he did basically nothing to help assemble. Then, he watched that
team turn around and finish 7-9 and 5-11 the next two years, as they fell apart
due to personality and chemistry issues. In his last six seasons with the Bucs,
the team made the playoffs just twice, and lost in the Wild Card Round both
times as a home favorite. He only won 50.9% of his games in Tampa, and couldn’t
ever find the right quarterback. Yeah, I get it, he’s the big sexy name because
he’s the TV guy, but are we sure he’s a great coach?
And yes, I realize according to Clay Travis, I have a “mosquito dick”
for having that take, but I think there’s better, more qualified candidates who
are more likely to take the job out there.
Which brings us to Jimbo Fisher. If Jimbo is actually serious about
leaving FSU, then Tennessee should give him $8 million a year. Coming into the
job, he’d be the most accomplished coach they’ve hired since Johnny Majors. Who
is the coach out there that can top this resume?
- 1 National Championship
- 1 Appearance in the College Football Playoff
- 3 ACC Championships
- 81-23 record at FSU
- Won at least 10 games in six of his eight years at FSU
- Seven top 25 finishes, and four top 10 finishes
- Has over a decade SEC experience at two schools
- Is an offensive minded coach, something Tennessee desperately needs
- Is a fantastic recruiter
- Is in his coaching prime at 52
Again, I have no idea if he’s actually
interested or not, but he’s at least allowed his name to be floated out there.
It’s definitely been a miserable year in Tallahassee. He lost his starting
quarterback in the first game against Alabama, they’ve lost 6 games, he’s got
idiot fans yelling at him after losses, and if he does return to FSU next year,
it’ll probably be with forced changes to multiple different assistant coaches. Maybe he just
needs a fresh start? Tennessee is a great job with fantastic facilities
(something Jimbo has grumbled about the Seminoles not having in the past), a
talented roster, a massive recruiting budget, and what seems to be an interest
to pay whatever it takes to get the right coach. If I was John Currie, and Chip Kelly is going to Florida, and Fisher is interested, then I’d do
whatever it takes to get Jimbo in an orange tie.
No comments:
Post a Comment