Even though Jon Gruden has had three months to prepare for his first day of coaching actual Raiders players today, he’s going to actually ease into it today.
The Raiders are among the teams kicking off their offseason conditioning programs today, but he’s not going to be too fiery no matter how fired-up he is to begin again.
“There’s no reason to make a bunch of crazy speeches in April,” Gruden told Jerry McDonald of the Bay Area News Group. “We’re going to try and get ’em organized and start to build some relationships with each other and start to teach.”
Of course, for the first two weeks of the program, most of the work will be done by the strength and conditioning staff, with just a bit of work with assistant coaches to introduce players to their systems.
Gruden hasn’t coached a team of football players since his Buccaneers team lost to the Raiders on Dec. 28, 2008, which makes today a special one for him.
“I’m really excited,” Gruden said. “It’s been a long time. We’ve been here preparing for this day for so long. It will be limited, but we’ll put the boat in the water and it will be fun.”
Of course, watching him have to hold back might be the most entertaining part of it all, as he has 10 years of pent-up coaching that’s just dying to come out.