Former Super Bowl winning head coach Jon Gruden made headlines last week when he revealed (during Inside The FFCA Ep. 21) how badly he wants to coach once again and even more importantly, how badly he wants to coach in the SEC.
Gruden has coached almost everywhere over the span of his 37-year head coaching career, but has not yet coached a snap of football in the Southeastern Conference. While giving a speech to the Georgia Football program last Friday, Gruden made his intentions clear.
“The only reason I really came here is because I want to coach again,” Gruden said. “I’m being honest with you. I do not bullsh** either. I want to coach again. I’d die to coach in the SEC. I would love it. I would f***ing love it. I’ll let you guys this… what I know about the SEC is it’s getting harder. The SEC is getting harder. They tell me Texas is in the SEC. They tell me Oklahoma is in the SEC. G**damn.”
This quote lit up social media, with fans of teams all around the Southeastern Conference clamoring for their respective programs to give Gruden a shot (whether it’s a head coaching gig or an assistant coach position). ESPN’s Pete Thamel however joined Thursday’s edition of “The Pat Mcafee Show”, where he claimed that he just can’t see that becoming a possibility at all.
“My hunch on Gruden is that, look, there’s 136 of these Division I FBS jobs,” Thamel said. “It’s a Star Wars bar right… you go from Miami to Seattle from Phoenix to Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. There’s a lot in between with the Marshall’s and the Western Kentucky’s and Arkansas State’s. I think Jon Gruden could land somewhere amid that, so I would not project him to go to the SEC. There are just better college coaches available than Jon Gruden. I just think that the University hiring process for Gruden, who is amid ongoing litigation, could add some complexities to that.”
Gruden hasn’t coached since he resigned from the Raiders in2 021
Gruden most recently was a consultant with the New Orleans Saints in 2023 following his departure from the Las Vegas Raiders in 2021. In the midst of his fourth season with the franchise (his second stint), Gruden resigned after leaked emails involving racially/misogynistic/homophobic language were uncovered during the NFL’s investigation into Dan Snyder and the Washington Commanders (then known as the Washington Football Team).
Prior to his departure from the NFL, Gruden coached 15 seasons (eight with the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders and seven with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers). He boasts a 117-112 career record with a Super Bowl XXXVII win in 2002. He however has not coached in college football since 1991, when he was a wide receivers coach at Pittsburgh. Gruden joined the Green Bay Packers as an offensive assistant/quality control coach in 1992 and never returned to the collegiate ranks.
The Sandusky, OH native stayed mostly out of the spotlight following the scandal until he joined Barstool Sportsin November 2024. His YouTube channel, which features shows such as ‘Gruden’s QB Class‘, ‘Inside the FFCA‘ and ‘Gruden Goes Long‘, has skyrocketed to 260K subscribers while his TikTok account boasts 401K followers and 7.2 million likes.
Although the former Super Bowl winning head coach seems to be enjoying the second run of his media career (he was previously an analyst on ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcasts from 2009-2017), he has made it clear that he is however looking to returning to coaching football (hopefully in the SEC) at some point in the near future.
