It has been nearly four years since former NFL head coach Jon Gruden has been in the coaching space. But after Arkansas decided to part ways with longtime head coach Sam Pittman on Sunday, Gruden emerged as an intriguing name to watch for the new SEC vacancy.
Inconsistencies in recent years, along with a disastrous 56-13 loss to Notre Dame on Saturday, spelled the end of Pittman’s tenure at Arkansas. The program opted to let former Arkansas head coach and current offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino serve as the interim head coach for the remainder of the 2025 season.
Given Petrino’s impressive track record at Arkansas, which includes consecutive double-digit win seasons in 2010 and 2011, Petrino may be the most likely candidate at the moment to serve as the long-term head coach of the future for Arkansas.
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But interestingly, Jon Gruden was named as a possible candidate to be the next Arkansas head coach by Sports Illustrated College Football writer Bryan Fischer in what would certainly be a splash hire, given the profile of a figure Gruden has been as a coach in the past.
As of late, Gruden has expressed his desire to return to coaching in the near future, even specifically explaining how he would “die” to coach in the SEC. So, at least from Gruden’s perspective, it seems like the interest in the vacancy would certainly be there.
As for whether there will ultimately be interest from Arkansas, there are several factors to consider. Perhaps most notably, Gruden has never been a head coach at the collegiate level, last coaching as an assistant collegiate back in 1991 as a wide receivers coach at the University of Pittsburgh.
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A lack of collegiate coaching experience didn’t stop the University of North Carolina from pulling out all the stops to bring in Bill Belichick this past offseason. Arkansas could potentially do the same for Gruden this coming offseason.
Either way, it seems like Gruden is dead set on returning to coaching in some capacity. So don’t be shocked to see that he at least gets a look from Arkansas, or other head coaching vacancies that emerge across college football in the near future.