Jon Gruden's stated goal in life was to be Michigan's coach.
Unfortunately for Wolverines fans who would love to see the Super Bowl-winning coach in Ann Arbor, he expressed that goal a long time ago, when he was in college at Dayton in 1984.
If Michigan (actually, a better word might be "when") fires Brady Hoke, you'd think school officials would put in a call to Gruden because, hey, isn't any big-name school with a coaching vacancy linked with him? At the same time, if Gruden wants to return to coaching, there's likely an NFL team that would hire him. ( Plus, Gruden had little patience for grown men playing quarterback and making mistakes; how in the world could he handle an 18- or 19-year-old quarterback making mistakes? It's also hard to see Gruden getting all that amped up to basically beg teens to come play for him -- and recruiting is all about begging.
Still, thinking about Gruden being unleashed on the relatively staid Big Ten -- that would be a heck of a lot of fun.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.