Fansided

Paul Finebaum stokes Jon Gruden to Tennessee rumors

By Brad Berreman

TAMPA, FL - AUGUST 31: John Gruden during an NFL preseason football game between the Washington Redskins and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on August 31, 2017, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL. (Photo by Roy K. Miller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
TAMPA, FL - AUGUST 31: John Gruden during an NFL preseason football game between the Washington Redskins and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on August 31, 2017, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL. (Photo by Roy K. Miller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Butch Jones is clearly on the hot seat at Tennessee, but is Jon Gruden really the top choice to replace him?

A bye week may be coming at a good time for the Tennessee Volunteers, after a 41-0 home loss to Georgia last week. A 3-2 record has head coach Butch Jones on the hot seat, again, and Tennessee is a play here or there from being 1-4. An epic comeback against Georgia Tech in the season opener could have easily fallen short, and the Volunteers beat winless UMass by a slim 17-13 margin.

If or when Jones is fired, Tennessee will surely have a wish list for the next football coach filled with notable names. Chip Kelly and Mike Leach come to mind immediately, but Paul Finebaum of SEC Network and ESPN said he was in Knoxville just last week and came out of town with another big name Tennessee would like to replace Jones.

"If I hadn’t been to Knoxville last week, I would have laughed at you,” Finebaum told a caller on his show on Thursday. “But I talked to someone, let me put it you that way, someone that I have a lot of trust in and that is connected deeply in that program and he told me the same thing. He said, ‘If we lose this (Georgia) game, and something happens to Butch Jones, our first choice will be Jon Gruden."

Gruden of course made his name as an NFL head coach with the Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But since being fired by Tampa Bay following the 2008 season he has been working for ESPN as the analyst on Monday Night Football and the host of Gruden’s QB Camp with draft prospects each spring.

A couple years ago, on Finebaum’s radio show as it were, Gruden described Tennessee as a “dream job” for him. He was also unwilling to say how close he was to taking the job when Jones was hired after the 2012 season. Gruden worked as a grad assistant at the school in the mid-1980s, so the tie is an easy, convenient one to make.

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Speculation attaching Gruden to coaching jobs has lessened a bit in recent years. He has a pretty comfortable gig in the Monday Night Football booth, and ESPN probably pays him better than any coaching job would at this point. But the itch to coach may never totally leave him, and Gruden has now been put among the betting options to become the next head coach at Tennessee by at least one site.

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