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Gruden Does Anything But Put Down Rumors
UHND.com - Frank Vitovitch
12/4/2001
Many major media outlets put up articles saying Gruden tried to put down rumors about him being interested in the head coaching vacancy at Notre Dame, but if you listened to him he did anything but that.
If Gruden wanted this to go away quickly he would have come out today and said something along the lines of, "No, I am not interested in that job, all I am interested in is winning the Super Bowl with the Raiders." Instead Gruden said that he has a policy of not talking about another job while he still has one. He didn't say anything about not being interested.
If Gruden were truly not interested he would not want this distraction for his Raider team. However, he let even more speculation grow by not coming out and taking his name out of consideration for the head coach at Notre Dame. He did not do such a thing however.
So for now the speculation will grow as to what Gruden's interest in the job is. He didn't come out and say he was interested in the job though either. All he did was fail say that he wasn't interested. To me this makes it clear that there is interest there.
This was not the only development in the head coaching search from Monday though. Barry Alvarez took his name out of contention stating that he is staying at Wisconsin. Some new names surfaced in George O'Leary from Georgia Tech, Tim Murphy from Harvard, and Nick Saban of LSU.
Many analysts have also now come out and said that the timing isn't right for Gruden to come to Notre Dame. Wojo from ESPN as well as Chris Mortenson also of ESPN have said they doubt that Gruden will come to Notre Dame.
There were also encouraging developments for Irish fans. WNDU reported that there is a college out clause in Gruden's contract. The South Bend Tribune reported that Derek Landri stated that the Raiders offensive coordinator told Gruden to take the job at Notre Dame if it is offered to him. Notre Dame contacted Gruden's agent Robert LaMonte. Lastly, according to one of Morris' posts, "Jim Gruden father of Oakland Raider Coach Jon Gruden said his son would enjoy coaching in college. He then spoke with absolute glowing praise of Notre Dame."
Overall, not too much completely new was learned today. It was generally thought that he could get out of his contract and it was also generally known that he had some interest in the job based on previous statements he made before the job was open. What he did learn today was that given the chance to put down the rumors, Gruden choose not to. You may read on ESPN that he tried to, but if you listened to him today he did nothing of the sort. All he did was state that he didn't want to talk about another job now.
It is looking more and more likely that Jon Gruden may be the next head coach of Notre Dame. If he does in fact become the next head coach of Notre Dame a few things will happen. There will be some LOFTY expectations for next year. Gruden will have the full support of the fans and students. Lastly, based on reports from Tom Lemming and the South Bend Tribune recruiting will not be hurt at all. lemming reported that recruits have told him that they would commit to Notre Dame without talking to Gruden just based on who Gruden was. The South bend Tribune also talked with most of ND's current commits and they all seemed very excited about the chance of playing for Gruden.