Having reestablished himself at Barstool and notching a legal victory against the NFL, Jon Gruden appears to be angling for a return to the sidelines.
The Super Bowl-winner hasn’t coached since 2021 (he worked as a special consultant for the New Orleans Saints in 2023), when he resigned amid a scandal involving racist and misogynistic emails he’d sent to members of the Washington Football Team staff. However, if there was ever a time for a guy who casually tossed off homophobic and racist slurs to seek redemption, this is it.
Gruden recently sparked headlines when he shared a video in which he said, “I want to coach again. I’d die to coach in the SEC. I would love it. I would f*cking love it.”
Since then, speculation has run rampant about where Gruden might make sense in the SEC and if any school would take a flyer on hiring him. However, ESPN’s Pete Thamel threw some fairly cold water on that possibility, saying that while Gruden could probably land a college football coaching gig, it won’t be in the SEC.
“My hunch on Gruden is that, look, there’s 136 of these Division I FBS jobs,” Thamel said during Thursday’s The Pat McAfee Show. “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 Marshalls and the Western Kentuckys and Arkansas States. 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.”
On paper, Gruden certainly has the kind of resume many programs would kill to have for their head coach—15 seasons in the NFL and a Super Bowl ring. However, he hasn’t coached in the college ranks since 1991, when he was a wide receivers coach for the Pittsburgh Panthers. Of course, the legal and PR issues surrounding Gruden complicate matters.
But hey, it’s not like a lack of recent college football experience stopped Bill Belichick.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.