So as we all had been patiently waiting and hoping, there is officially a new offensive general in town. Coach Gruden, no not the one we famously know as "chucky", but his little brother. When his name first started being put into the same sentence as the vacant job as Bengals offensive coordinator, like many my first thoughts was who the hell is this guy??? Well after doing my research and a conference call later I feel I can tell you everything you need to know about this guy and his plans for the Cincinnati offense. Jay Gruden, 43, was born in Tempa Florida. Younger brother of Jon Gruden who was a very successful head coach with the Tampa Bay Bucs. Jay is more known for his work as Head Coach of a team called the Florida Tuskers of the United Football League. He is what we call a football guy, he has been a successful player and coach, and been around the game his entire life. As a Player Gruden was a four-year letterman at Louisville He finished his collegiate career with 7,024 passing yards, completing 572 of 1049 passes for 44 touchdowns. All four stats still rank in the top five in Louisville Cardinals' history, so he somewhat of a local. He never made it to the NFL but he did play professional football in the AFL where Gruden won four ArenaBowl titles as the starting quarterback of the Tampa Bay Storm. He was the Arena League MVP in the 1992 season. As a coach, Gruden began his coaching career as the offensive coordinator for the Nashville Kats in 1997. Then, in 1998, he became head coach of the Orlando Predators, the main rival of the Tampa Bay Storm. He won ArenaBowl titles in 1998 and 2000 as head coach. He un-retired and resumed playing in 2002, this time for the Predators, but retired again and returned to head coaching when his replacement, Fran Papasedero, died after the 2003 season. Gruden has an overall AFL career record of 93–61, including a record of 11–7 in the playoffs.
From 2002 to 2008 he also served as an offensive assistant for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the National Football League under his brother, head coach Jon Gruden. He left after Jon was fired following the 2008 season.
He also has coached in the Arena Football League, winning AFL titles with the Orlando Predators in 1998 and 2000. In 2009, while the Predators were on hiatus prior to the folding of the Arena Football League, he was selected to be head coach Jim Haslett's offensive coordinator for the Florida Tuskers of the United Football League. As part of his contract, he was not permitted to remain head coach of the Predators. Instead, former Preds quarterback Pat O'Hara, who led the team to the two ArenaBowls it won when Gruden was head coach, was hired in his place.
In 2009, he was named head coach of the Tuskers following Haslett's departure to join Mike Shanahan's staff with the Washington Redskins. In 2010 he coached the Virginia Destroyers of the United Football League. For 2011 he will be back in the NFL as offensive coordinator of our Cincinnati Bengals. I am not jumping in the deep end on Gruden yet, but after a Conference called held today I like what I'm hearing and he has given me a reason to believe again. When as of the expectation he has, and will have to take on Gruden said, “I expect great things with the Bengals. I intend on bringing a great attitude and work ethic. We’ll build off the strength this offense has developed and add a system to challenge everyone in the building. I hope to do that. I hope to challenge everybody in the building. We’re going to get after it in a lot of different ways. … We plan on being simple and basic in what we do, but it’s going to look complex. That’s a big part of our offense.” Sounds like what we been wanting to see right? How many of us, could call the play watching the game before Bratkowski sent it down on the field? Everybody know i'm a Carson Palmer fan, one of the few he has in this city, and proud of it might I add. When ask about the Carson Palmer Situation, Gruden responded, "“It’s very important for us to do whatever we can to talk to Carson and get him to come back. I feel strongly that, if given the opportunity to talk to him and sell him on the offense and the excitement we’re going to bring to the team, (inaudible). If he’s adament about not coming back, that’s going to be his decision. We can only control what we can control.” Even though I love CP9 as the QB of the Bengals, from the tone of Gruden voice I felt like, in a way, he wanted to say, we'll love to have Carson, but without him we'll still be successful so I liked that. So what about Cedric Benson and the running game??? “We have to run the ball between the tackles,” Gruden said. “We have to be a physical team up front. We’re going to challenge our offensive line to be physical. We’re not going to spread out and go no-huddle every down and throw the ball 65 times a game. I intend on pounding the ball and being able to pound the ball.” I like the sound of that and hope it true, I find it kind of hard to believe given the fact he has always ran a west coast style offense, No i'm not saying he going to throw it 65 times, there is no way, but I do think will be more pass then run, that's just the style of the west coast offense. Now you can mix it up, and adjust it and many different ways, which is what I think he will attempt to do, because clearly we are a more run fit team then pass. All in all i'm excited about the new change, I would rather had got a more known and bigger name coordinator that is well known at what he do, but I'm willing to give this Gruden a chance, he brother always was my favorite NFL coach, so he at least deserves that. I'm anixious to see how this will turn out.
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