I’ve been a fan of Jon Gruden ever since I started watching football. I tuned in to his QB Camp series every season as he tutored and mentored the quarterbacks entering the NFL Draft. My favorite segments featured Patrick Mahomes and Marcus Mariota (both of whom have showed promise on their respective teams) as they re-watched and critiqued their own films. Since then, Gruden has been one of my favorite football minds whose constant study of the game outshines that of any other ESPN character. Gruden has a long coaching history since he took his first job as a graduate assistant at Tennessee from 1986-87. His first coaching hire was as the passing game coordinator at Southeast Missouri State in 1988. He was named tight ends coach at Pacific in 1989 before he entered the NFL as an offensive assistant for the San Francisco 49ers in 1990. Gruden made his last collegiate coaching attempt at Pittsburgh where he coached the wide receivers in 1991 before returning to the NFL the next year. He headed to the Green Bay Packers as an offensive assistant in 1992 before earning a promotion as wide receivers coach from 1993-94. He became the offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1995-97 and reached the promised land as head coach of the Oakland Raiders from 1998-2001. When he was named head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002, Gruden began to thrive as a leader and play caller. He led the Buccs to a 48-21 success over the Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII and he compiled a career wins record with 57 Buccaneers wins. Gruden has a 100-85 career record as he returns to his former team in Oakland to become their new head coach. Although he hasn’t called a game in 10 years, I’ll be rooting for Chucky all the way!
