Yes, it will be interesting to have Jon Gruden back in a broadcast booth. Assuming he’s not the same Jon Gruden who was trying not to burn bridges during the eight years he spent at ESPN.
Unfiltered Gruden is the best Gruden. And he left the filter home when recently discussing the state of the game with Cam Heyward.
“I’m worried about the game to be honest with you,” Gruden said regarding the state of quarterback play, via Nate Brinkerhoff of USA Today. “A lot of people think the game is evolving. I think the game is dissolving.”
Gruden blames it on communication, or lack thereof.
“We’re just not communicating,” Gruden said. “I always use these three letters ‘RCE.’ You got to recognize the defense, recognize the coverage, and then you start to communicate. You can change the play, you can stay with the play, but you got to be a great communicator. And if you can recognize defenses, communicate what you want to do, you got a chance to execute.”
That process requires time to read the defense and react accordingly.
“When you just run up to the line of scrimmage, clap your hands, and hope for the best,” Gruden said. “I can’t take all these RPO bubble screens and high turbo tempo offenses with six false starts a game and no communication. . . . I’d rather slam my hand in a car door than watch some of this.”
As Gruden sees it, the problem isn’t at the professional level. It’s at the college level.
“A lot of these guys are on four or five different colleges,” Gruden said. “I mean they transfer from one college to another. There’s no continuity and you know repetition is the mother of learning. You had to get into the same stance, do the same drills and the same defense for a period of years. And that’s how you master the techniques.”
And while Gruden’s immediate aspiration is to call games as the play-by-play announcer, he continues to keep the door open to coaching.
“I would love to get into a locker room and start putting together some game plans again,” Gruden said. “I miss it, man. But, we’ll take one day at a time and all you can do is prepare yourself for somebody to toss you the chalk and interview you. . . . I’ll be ready if somebody does.”
While waiting for someone to toss him the chalk, Gruden will be possibly throwing a headset while broadcasting a game featuring some of the bad habits that will bring out his inner Chucky.
Who usually doesn’t lurk very far below the surface.
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