Former Las Vegas Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden has not necessarily been in the news a lot recently.
Gruden resigned as the Raiders’ head coach during the 2021 season after an investigation into the then-Washington Football Team uncovered emails from Gruden containing racist, misogynistic, and homophobic slurs.
But it now appears that he’s a candidate for at least one head-coaching opening. On the very same day that the Indiana Hoosiers fired head coach Tom Allen, a report from Bruce Feldman of The Athletic indicates that Gruden is a “big wildcard candidate” for the opening.
“The 60-year old Gruden, who won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 39, does have some support with a few key people high up at the school, I’ve been told.”
Report on Indiana’s interest in Jon Gruden
While this seemingly comes out of left field, there are connections here. Per Feldman, Gruden visits Bloomington often. His father, Jim, was also a member of Lee Corso’s coaching staff with the Hoosiers back in the 1970s. The aforementioned report also goes on to indicate that Gruden has at least some interest in the opening.
Jon Gruden coaching record: 117-112, 5 playoff appearances, 1 Super Bowl title
A product of Dayton, Gruden was born in Ohio. He has ties to the communities in that region.
Even then, he doesn’t necessarily have a history coaching at the amateur level. Gruden last served as an assistant in college with Pacific back in 1989. Prior to that, he was the passing-game coordinator for Southeast Missouri State (1988) and a graduate assistant for the Tennessee Volunteers (1986-87).
It remains to be seen if Gruden’s history and the scandal we mentioned above would act as a detriment when it comes to his viability as a candidate for Indiana’s opening.
The Hoosiers fired Allen after finishing this season with an ugly 3-9 record. Indiana has earned just five bowl appearances since all the way back in 1993. The program has posted a 9-27 record over the past three seasons. In a vacuum, hiring Gruden would be a boon for the struggling program.