On Monday, Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden responded to the rumors linking him to the head coaching position at the University of Tennessee.

Gruden started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Tennessee in 1986 under then-Volunteers head coach Johnny Majors. With his wife also being from Tennessee, Gruden was quickly rumored to be a potential replacement for Volunteers coach Philip Fulmer, who was recently fired. Gruden was asked if he had any interest in the position at Tennessee, and about the rumors linking him to the opening.

"No. I've said it from the beginning, this is the only job I've really ever wanted," Gruden said. "As long as the Glazers will have me, I'll be here. I have 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. I can only make myself that clear.

"I don't want to even start that. I've wanted to be in the NFL my whole life. This is something I'm really excited to do, and this is where I want to be. I'll leave it at that."

Gruden was then asked if he had been contacted regarding Tennessee's head coaching position.

"I haven't been contacted," said Gruden. "I don't get involved in speculation. I haven't done a lot of reading on the internet stuff lately. I enjoy where I am. I'm eager to finish this season with the players that we have, and I'm excited."

Gruden just passed Tony Dungy to become the winningest head coach in franchise history. The Glazer family, the Buccaneers owners, gave Gruden a special presentation in the locker room after the team's last victory in Kansas City. While the Bucs got their sixth win of the season, they also had some players come out of the game banged up.

After incurring a number of injuries over the past month of the season, Gruden gave his players the entire bye week off. He said the injuries would have almost prevented them from having a practice in that time. Gruden felt they did the right thing in giving the players the week off. The injured players came in for treatment during the week, but the others were able to get away from football for a while.

Gruden said that they researched the practices of different teams across the league, and made their decision based on that research. While most of the players were gone, the coaches were able to fill that time with some preparation for the final seven games, and some rest of their own.

"Well we did a good job as a staff looking at a couple of problem areas," said Gruden. "We looked at our tendencies we looked at our self-scout, and basically we looked at a lot of Viking tape. We tried to look at some our upcoming opponents. We tried to use the time wisely. We got away, and got the coaches out of here a little bit to let them see their families and rejuvenate."

Veteran linebacker Derrick Brooks felt the players put the time off to good use. The team captain has been playing with a hamstring injury since the season opener, and that was on his mind when he identified the biggest benefit to the team having the time off.

"The most important thing is we all got back healthy and in one piece," said Brooks. "We had a good practice this morning. We know the challenge ahead of us in terms of stopping the Vikings offense. Adrian Peterson is arguably the best back in the NFL. We know the task ahead of us, but we can't rush the process. We take each day as it is, but we got off to a good start today."

Currently, the Buccaneers find themselves as one of the Wild Cards in the NFC playoff race. At 6-3, Tampa Bay is one game behind the Carolina Panthers for the division lead. The Atlanta Falcons share the same mark as the Bucs, but lost in the teams' Week 2 contest. The New Orleans Saints are in last place in the NFC South with a record of 4-5. Gruden was asked what was going to decide the division race and the playoff spots in the competitive NFC.

"It is going to be a lot of things," said Gruden. "It will be hard-fought games. [Falcons quarterback] Matt Ryan is for real. He is really something. He's great. I watched him yesterday and I tip my hat to him. He is clearly a great prospect. [Saints quarterback] Drew Brees and that team in New Orleans are capable of running the table if you ask me. They have that type of team. Carolina has been ornery as hell on defense all year. They have some fine players. It is going to be a dogfight."

Comments