'I Did Consider Pulling the Trigger There': Jon Gruden Says He Was Close To Taking the Tennessee Job in 2017

I knew the Grumors were real, damn it.

If you weren't there, I can't really adequately explain to you what a fever dream the few weeks in 2017 were like when Tennessee was looking for a new football coach. In addition to the search eventually ending up in athletic director John Currie getting fired for taking a secret plane to hire Mike Leach before being called back to Knoxville and canned for going behind everybody else's back and the eventual hire of Jeremy Pruitt, the Gruden rumors were a constant throughout. There was not a conversation had in East Tennessee for a month that did not eventually pivot to Grumors. And it seems like there really was contact and some consideration on Coach's part — I call him Coach now because we're close personal friends as of Thursday.

I guess going through the Pruitt era was worth it in that it eventually led to the hire of Josh Heupel and where the Tennessee program is now, but I would have given anything to see the Vols run through the Power T with Jon Gruden leading the way.

But I guess all we'll ever have are the Grumors. At least now I have the peace of mind of knowing that we weren't all crazy. Coach was close.

And though he originally cut me from his hypothetical Barstool Chicago football team, that only made us stronger in the end when he turned on the tape and saw a gamer who was willing and eager to be coached. Just a couple of Vols For Life.