Passionate Plea For Jay Gruden As New Head Coach In Jacksonville

+ Mike Bianchi with the Orlando Sentinel offers a rather impassioned plea for the Jacksonville Jaguars to hire Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden as the team's next head coach, who interviewed with the team on Tuesday. .

Granted, Jay, because he felt it would be disloyal to leave the Bengals after only one year as offensive coordinator, pulled his name out of contention last season for NFL head-coaching openings in Jacksonville, Miami, St. Louis, etc. But the Jaguars made the decision easy because they never really pursued him.

I've been telling people for years that Jay, not Jon, is the best coach in the Gruden family. Back when Jay was just an Arena League coach with the Orlando Predators, I scratched my head when Florida and Florida State wouldn't even give him a second glance as an offensive coordinator. Instead, they hired guys like Jeff Bowden and Steve Addazio. I even tried to tell the Miami Hurricanes when they ridiculously thought they were going to get Jon Gruden as their head coach that they should hire Jay instead.

Why won't anybody listen to me?

The argument didn't scratch the surface with offensive philosophies, how Jacksonville's personnel could benefit from Gruden's offense after two mediocre rankings compared to the rest of the NFL. Only his otherwise otherwordly experience in the AFL and UFL.