Is Jon Gruden going to be the next University of Tennessee football coach? Derek Dooley isn't all that popular in Knoxville right now, and as Clay Travis wrote recently, Gruden is a logical replacement: Gruden's first job out of college was as a graduate assistant at the University of Tennessee, his wife was a UT cheerleader, and Gruden is supposedly tired of the NFL commentator grind. (Apparently, the college coach grind is easier?) Naturally, fans are freaking out (USA Today noted that hirejongruden.com briefly redirected to the official UT webiste, now it goes here), and with the University of Tennessee losing close games, a prestige coaching hire seems more necessary than ever. That's especially true for the more deranged members of the Volunteer fanbase.
Enter, social media: today, this, a picture of what appears to be Jon Gruden on an airplane, looking at something, was sent out to the world from the Twitter account of a website-less financial services company based in Knoxville:
Nice shirt, would be our first thought. An email, posted to the Volquest.com message boards [sign up req'd], may provide a little background (click to expand):
The comments on the thread range from incredulous ("Only tennessee fans would get excited about jon gruden being on a flight from houston to phoenix") to profound ("This is destiny my friend"). All understandable, especially after a tough loss to South Carolina. But the question remains: if Gruden was really taking notes on Tennessee's loss, how many times did he write the word "slapdick"?
[Twitter]