Gruden says 'no thanks' to Tennessee coaching JOB

Tampa Bay Bucs coach Jon Gruden has become the latest big name to publically take himself out of the running for the vacant head coaching position at the University of Tennessee.  In comments to the Tampa area media, Gruden reaffirmed his commitment to coaching the Bucs and underscored the fact that he’s much more comfortable in the NFL than he would be in college.

The Tennessee coaching job became available when Phil Fullmer announced that he’d been forced out of his position in an emotional press conference on November 4th.  The Vols have become SEC doormats this season and dropped to 3-7 last Saturday with a loss to Wyoming from the Mountain West Conference.  It was another pitiful showing from the Volunteers offense, which has gone from the potent force of the Peyton Manning era to one of the lowest scoring teams in Division 1-A/FBS college football.

Fullmer will be coaching the team for the remainder of the season, but the search has already begun for his replacement.  So far, the search hasn’t been going very well with a host of top college coaches giving emphatic indications that they weren’t interested in the position.  On the day of Fullmer’s press conference three coaches quickly took themselves out of the running—Steve Spurrier at South Carolina, Butch Davis at North Carolina and David Cutcliffe at Duke.

Gruden became the latest with his comments expressing that he’s going to stay in Tampa for the foreseeable future:

"I've said it from the beginning, this is the only job I've really ever wanted. As long as the Glazers will have me, I'll be here. I've got a lot of respect for Tennessee. I grew up down there a little bit. My wife is from there. But this is where I want to be, and I can only make myself that clear."

He continued to dismiss any desire to coach college football, at Tennessee or elsewhere:

"I've wanted to be in the NFL my whole life, and this is something I'm really excited to do. This is where I want to be, and I'll leave it at that."

Tennessee is under a lot of pressure to find a replacement for Fullmer that the Vol faithful can get excited about, but as more and more coaches turn down the job that becomes more problematic.  At this point, they may need to wait until after the season when there will be a new crop of coaches without jobs to choose from.