Vols Football: Jon Gruden And Tennessee, Will It Happen?

Former Tennessee Vols assistant coach Jon Gruden was in Knoxville on Friday, sending fans into a frenzy.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice and depending on who your favorite philosopher is, you either can’t get fooled again, or if you do, it’s on you.

Fans of the Tennessee Vols have been fooled by Jon Gruden before, and it looks like a significant number of fans are going down that road again.

I can understand the pull toward Gruden. He was a graduate assistant under Johnny Majors in the late 1980’s. He met his wife, a former cheerleader, at Tennessee. His in-laws still live in the area. And he famously still owns land near Knoxville.

On top of all that, Gruden is a former Super Bowl winning coach, and he’s someone that all football fans relate to, because he’s seen nationwide on a weekly basis on Monday Night Football.

I’m of the opinion that Gruden would make a good coach at Tennessee. Though that’s far from a certainty. Gruden has never been a head coach at the collegiate level, and he hasn’t been a coach at any level since the 2008 season.

And who’s to say that Gruden would be successful recruiting? If you’re a top tier recruit, are you going to commit to someone who is winning national championships like Nick Saban or Dabo Swinney? Or are you going to commit to some guy that talks about football on TV?

High school recruits were babies when Gruden won a Super Bowl at Tampa Bay in 2002. I’m not sure Gruden being a great recruiter is something we can just assume.

But all of that is a moot point, because Gruden already told us this past summer that he’s not interested in coaching at the collegiate level.

Gruden admitted he had talked to people (he most certainly talked to Tennessee in 2012) and that at one time he was “determined” to be a college coach, but he finally realized it just wasn’t for him.

From The Pewter Report:

"I was very determined to be a college coach. Then I realized that if I became a college coach I would probably have you on probation within four or five weeks. Too many rules, man. I mean I like to work. I don’t like to be working 15 hours a week with players. The recruiting, Facebook, texting, e-mails – all that stuff. Yeah, I’d probably have you in real deep, deep trouble if I was your college coach."

I mean that should put an end to it, right? Gruden openly says that he knows college football isn’t the place for him. I don’t see how any rumors can progress after those comments from Gruden just a few months ago.

But that didn’t stop fans from freaking out when Gruden arrived in Knoxville on Friday and was spotted all around town.

Do you really think Gruden, who has said on multiple occasions that he’s good friends with Butch Jones, would come parade around Knoxville and campaign for a job when the current coach is still employed?

The folks obsessed with Gruden took a pretty transparent situation — Gruden was in Knoxville ahead of a Monday Night Football game in Nashville, likely to visit his son who is a student at Tennessee — and turned it into this strange story that he’s already being offered a contract.

It’s just not happening. Gruden is in the perfect situation at ESPN. He has a great job, he gets paid extremely well (over $6 million a year), and he gets to be around football on a weekly basis.

There’s absolutely no way in hell Gruden is leaving that job to take a job at a down-on-its-luck college football program.

Next: 5 Coaches You Won't See At Tennessee Next Year

Give up the dreams of Gruden to Tennessee.

There’s a better chance of Butch Jones keeping his job than Gruden coaching on Rocky Top next season.