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There are few bigger personalities, for better or worse, in football than former NFL head coach and Super Bowl Champion Jon Gruden. And, the controversial figure has been mentioned by one of college football’s top insiders as a candidate for the open position at head coach for the Indiana Hoosiers.
The news came Sunday night, when The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman tweeted out a list of candidates for the job. Indiana fired Tom Allen on Sunday after a third straight losing season and a loss to rival Purdue
“Among the Indiana coaching candidates to replace Tom Allen: South Alabama’s Kane Wommack, Bama OC Tommy Rees, Ohio State OL coach Justin Frye, and a big wildcard candidate who has support with some key IU folks: Jon Gruden,” Feldman said.
That is surprising to say the least. For the purpose of discussion, we will take Feldman’s report at face value, and assume he has a genuine source that is saying that they could hire Jon Gruden.
It would truly be stunning, considering how his last tenure as a coach ended. Gruden was fired from the Raiders in 2021 after emails that many considered racist, homophobic, and offensive were leaked as part of events surrounding the Washington Commanders. It seems like a large public university would not want to be associated with that, but Auburn hired Hugh Freeze after he was caught calling an escort service over a dozen times while the head coach at Ole Miss.
Also, Jon Gruden hasn’t been a college coach since 1991, when he was the receivers coach at Pitt. Needless to say, college football is a much different game now than it was then. I’m not sure what sense this makes for Indiana to even have interest in him. Yes, he grew up in South Bend, Indiana, but that’s as far as his ties go to the area.
That being said, it’s coaching carousel season, and there are always some hires that truly come out of nowhere. Maybe Jon Gruden to Indiana will be the one this year.