Jon Gruden Tied To Multiple High-Profile College Football Head Coach Openings
Just when you thought the college football coaching carousel couldn’t get any wilder, Jon Gruden’s name gets tossed into the mix like a Hail Mary on the final play. The man they call Chucky, fresh off a stint in football purgatory, is apparently itching for a comeback, and the rumor mill is churning at full speed.
Gruden’s Coaching Comeback Tour?
For months, Gruden has been making the rounds, popping up at training camps and speaking engagements, telling anyone with a microphone that he’s ready to trade his analyst chair for a headset again. “I’m about to make a comeback,” he said. “I’m going to coach again. I’m still coaching. I’m just not on a team officially.” It is the kind of quote that makes you sit up and listen. This isn’t just idle chatter; it’s a man on a mission.
His football exile, stemming from the infamous 2021 email scandal that saw him exit the Las Vegas Raiders, seems to have only stoked his fire. Now, with several big-time college football programs looking for new leadership, Gruden’s name has suddenly vaulted from a long shot to a legitimate contender in the eyes of some.
The SEC’s Newest Dark Horse
The SEC is a different beast, a pressure cooker where legends are made and coaches are chewed up and spit out. And Gruden? He’s practically begging for a piece of it. “I’d die to coach in the SEC. I would love it. I would f-cking love it,” he said with his signature intensity at a University of Georgia event. You can almost picture him prowling the sidelines in Fayetteville or Baton Rouge, his face contorted in that famous scowl, drawing up plays on a whiteboard with ferocious energy.
This isn’t just a fantasy, either. The betting markets have caught on. According to Kalshi, Gruden’s odds to land the Arkansas job skyrocketed from a laughable 1% to a very real 23% in just a few days. He’s also being listed as a dark-horse candidate for the LSU opening, right there with names like Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban. Talk about some spicy jambalaya.
Why Gruden Makes a Weird Kind Of Sense
Let’s be honest, hiring Gruden comes with baggage. He hasn’t coached in college since ’89, back when the forward pass was still a novel concept. His NFL record is solid, a Super Bowl ring with the Buccaneers is nothing to sneeze at, but the college game, with its recruiting battles and NIL chaos, is a whole new world.
Yet, you can see the appeal. He’s a football savant, a quarterback whisperer with an offensive playbook thicker than a phone book. He brings instant name recognition and a spark that could electrify a fanbase and, more importantly, attract top-tier recruits. Even Brett Favre chimed in, saying Gruden’s “energy, passion, and love for the game are a perfect fit for the SEC.”
Whether a university athletic director is brave enough to make that call remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure: the idea of Jon Gruden stalking an SEC sideline is the kind of beautiful chaos that makes college football the greatest show on turf.
