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Take Two: Can Tennessee land Jon Gruden?

Jon Gruden
Jon Gruden (AP Images)

BUTCH JONES FIRED: Why he failed | Recruits react | Who's next at Rocky Top?

Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and a local expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.

THE STORYLINE

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Coaches are being fired and that can only mean one thing: Jon Gruden will be mentioned as a possible successor.

Nowhere is that more rampant than at Tennessee, which fired coach Butch Jones after the Vols were embarrassed by Missouri this past weekend.

#Grumor has taken on a life of its own. Are Tennessee fans so desperate to win that they want to believe Gruden, a Super Bowl champ who has slyly kept his name involved in all coaching search mentions, would come to Knoxville? Or is this just another pie-in-the-sky wish that will go unanswered for another year?

What makes this one so interesting is that no one seems to know. Tennessee athletics director John Currie seemed to flash a smile when asked about Gruden in the coaching search a couple days ago. Was that some sort of hint, or again, just wishful thinking by a fan base aching for some coaching stability and program resurgence?

Virginia Tech’s Justin Fuente, Oregon’s Willie Taggart, Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen, MemphisMike Norvell and many others have been mentioned as possible candidates for the Tennessee job. Many would be fantastic hires.

But it seems Gruden remains the big fish. The only question is can Tennessee snag him, will he only return to the NFL or is he perfectly fine calling Monday Night Football for millions of dollars every year?

FIRST TAKE: JESSE SIMONTON, VOLQUEST.COM

“The #Grumors aren’t going away. Gruden has long been Tennessee’s White Whale and the current public courting is only creating additional speculation. The fact that Gruden loves the attention and has gone out of his way not to dismiss the reports add more and more smoke, too. But is there truly fire? We don’t know.

“Sources have told VolQuest.com that Gruden has reached out to coaches about possibly reuniting in the near future. But does he want back in the NFL or in college? How do finances play into all of this? For Tennessee, Gruden would be a home run hire. He’s an offensive guru who can walk into prospects’ homes sporting a Super Bowl Ring.

“And yet, Gruden has told people publicly and privately that the college game is too restrictive with the 20-hour time limits, practice rules and recruiting. Just this August, he joked that he’d 'have a school on probation within a month' because of all the recruiting rules. In the end, Gruden should be a target for Tennessee, but the likelihood remains that it’s a too-good-to-be-true fantasy for Vol fans.”

SECOND TAKE: MIKE FARRELL, RIVALS.COM

“It’s a #Grumor. He will get back to coaching eventually and it will be at the NFL level. I don’t think he wants any part of recruiting or any of the stuff that you have to deal with there. I don’t know him personally, but I know if you have the choice of making millions of dollars at the NFL level and millions of dollars coaching at the college level, unless you’re really tied into a program - and I know he has some Tennessee ties - you take the NFL job. He could have any of five NFL jobs every year.”

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