Debate - Pros and Cons - Jon Gruden

[Lord Vader]

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[HornSolo]

Jon Gruden = John Mackovic....I think we have already been down that road once.

 

[LongviewLobo01]

Pros- Super Bowl ring. Built the Oakland Raiders into a Super Bowl team with Rich freaking Gannon. Renowned for his X's and O's. Eats, sleeps, breathes, drinks and anything else you can do regarding football. Very mainstream in the fact that I doubt you'd find anyone who doesn't know of him that follows football.

Cons - Lack of college coaching experience. Out of coaching for half a decade. How committed would he be? Would he be here for the long haul or jump somewhere else if he's successful.

What offense would he run? There has been talk that he's enamored by the Oregon spread and that he would run it if he got a college job, but how would that work since he's never done it before? Who would he hire as his assistants? With his lack of recruiting and college experience it would be imperative for him to hire people with ties to the college game, but how many of those people does he know? Would the lack of coaching time with his players be a disadvantage for him when he's used to not having any time limits?

My theory is that with any NFL coach you are going to get a better coach than just about anyone else in the college game. In my opinion Gruden is a better coach than Briles because of his ability to win at the NFL level. In college you win with talent accumulation in many instances. While the NFL is littered with teams with similar talent, in college you might only face 1-2 teams a season with talent that is equal. So recruiting is the biggest question mark in my mind with any NFL coach. If we get a guy like Gruden or Tomlin and they recruit well we would build a freaking NCAA College Football type dynasty.

 

[UTK66]

Just not a fan of Gruden's coaching ability. I know he won a Super Bowl but he did it with a Dungy built team, but he did indeed get them there and win it. His winning percentage in the NFL is .540. To me, his teams declined the longer he was there.

And, for someone that everyone considers a QB guru, he couldn't pick one worth a shit. He did seem to do quite a bit with some mediocre talent at QB but IMO, if you're a QB guru you should be able to identify talent better than Trent Dilfer and Rich Gannon.

 

[LongviewLobo01]

Just not a fan of Gruden's coaching ability. I know he won a Super Bowl but he did it with a Dungy built team, but he did indeed get them there and win it. His winning percentage in the NFL is .540. To me, his teams declined the longer he was there.
And, for someone that everyone considers a QB guru, he couldn't pick one worth a shit. He did seem to do quite a bit with some mediocre talent at QB but IMO, if you're a QB guru you should be able to identify talent better than Trent Dilfer and Rich Gannon.

So he won a title with Tony Dungy's players, but if they were so great why didn't Dungy win? Why did Dungy get fired to start with?

And if you are going to discredit Gruden for winning a Super Bowl at Tampa you have to give him the credit for building the Raiders into the Super Bowl team they were when Gruden beat them with Tampa, right? Have you seen what Oakland did before and after Gruden left?

Maybe I forgot, but didn't Gannon win an MVP because of Gruden?

Some other notable coaches winning percentages in the NFL: .469 (Saban), .542 (Carroll), .375 (Spurrier), .414 (Butch Davis), .417 (Dennis Erickson). Those coaches have combined for 7 national titles and only one of them has a winning percentage in the NFL level with Gruden's. And none of them sniffed a Super Bowl, much less won one although Pete Carroll could end that this season.

 

[UTK66]

So he won a title with Tony Dungy's players, but if they were so great why didn't Dungy win? Why did Dungy get fired to start with?
And if you are going to discredit Gruden for winning a Super Bowl at Tampa you have to give him the credit for building the Raiders into the Super Bowl team they were when Gruden beat them with Tampa, right? Have you seen what Oakland did before and after Gruden left?

Maybe I forgot, but didn't Gannon win an MVP because of Gruden?

Some other notable coaches winning percentages in the NFL: .469 (Saban), .542 (Carroll), .375 (Spurrier), .414 (Butch Davis), .417 (Dennis Erickson). Those coaches have combined for 7 national titles and only one of them has a winning percentage in the NFL level with Gruden's. And none of them sniffed a Super Bowl, much less won one although Pete Carroll could end that this season.

Great points. I just think there is a world of difference between a college head coach and an NFL head coach. I think the difference is night and day. The coaches you listed in the last paragraph bare that out. I just think Gruden would be a bad choice. Besides, if he came to Texas we'd have to cut his damned hands off to keep him from using them so much when talking to people.

 

[LongviewLobo01]

Great points. I just think there is a world of difference between a college head coach and an NFL head coach. I think the difference is night and day. The coaches you listed in the last paragraph bare that out. I just think Gruden would be a bad choice. Besides, if he came to Texas we'd have to cut his damned hands off to keep him from using them so much when talking to people.

There is definitely a big difference. Recruiting. In the NFL you have a salary cap and draft that is in place to spread the wealth throughout the league in regards to talent. The only such limits in college are the 25/85 man limit. In other words, if you want to bring in the best 25 players in the country each year there is nothing stopping you. The biggest worry that you and most people have in regards to bringing in an NFL coach is also the biggest advantage.

In my opinion, a coach who is successful at the NFL level is a better coach than one who is successful at the college level. I think the records of some top national title winning coaches in the NFL proves that. So if we were to hire a proven NFL coach like Gruden or Tomlin the biggest need for them would be to hire assistants who can recruit well, right? Let me ask you this. If you're a college coach and have the chance to work under Tomlin or Gruden and learn from them and your goal is to eventually become a head coach or move on to the NFL who is going to be better than one of those guys? And if you're a high school player and a guy walks in with a Super Bowl ring on (or two) and he says he can show you what to do to get into the NFL because he's been there who wouldn't want to play for one of those guys? And if you're Art Briles or Bob Stoops or Kevin Sumlin, how do you recruit against that? Right now they are negative recruiting us like crazy, but that stops immediately if we hire Tomlin or Gruden AND surround them with top of the line assistants who aren't foreign to the college game.

 

[Trophies2]

I personally like Gruden. I think he would be spectacular. He's got Mack's PR gift of gab & Sabens analytical mind and toughness.