Jon Gruden Takes Over Auburn For Barstool Game Day

Jon Gruden is out of the film room and on the road. His Barstool college road trip series started at Auburn, and Gruden spent the whole Saturday with the Tigers for the SEC opener against Florida. He saw the campus, stopped by the famous Toomer's Drugs for lemonade, and ended up on the sideline at Jordan-Hare at night. Anyone who has watched Gruden for 30 years knows he's never going to act cool about any of this. He was hyped from start to finish.

The first stop wasn't even football. Gruden walked through Auburn's basketball facility, and what got him wasn't the nice locker room. It was how big the players were. When a guy who spent his life around NFL linemen is looking up at a group of college hoopers, you can tell they're big.

Barstool Sports

@barstoolsports

Coach Gruden got to check out Auburn’s basketball facilities during his game day campus takeover, but it was the size of these guys that has him most impressed. @foxone

Auburn meant something extra to Gruden. He told fans that the last time he came to Jordan-Hare, he got his ass kicked, 34-8. He also called the place a football factory that makes him nervous. The history is real. He coached Cadillac Williams in Tampa, he worked with Cam Newton on his old ESPN show, and his dad drafted Bo Jackson in 1986. This time he got to come as a fan instead of on a visiting staff, and it shows.

Then the sun went down and the stadium filled up. The best moment of the day came from Gruden in a Barstool polo and a clip-on mic, standing on the sideline and staring up at the video board while an orange Tigers hype graphic filled the screen. He didn't just like it. He decided the person running the board needed a raise.

Jon Gruden

@BarstoolGruden

Whoever operates the big screen at Jordan-Hare stadium deserves a raise!

The hype didn't carry over to the scoreboard. Florida beat Auburn 44-39 in a shootout. The Gators led 20-17 at halftime and pulled away with 2 long touchdown runs from Jadan Baugh and a 20-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Philo to Dallas Wilson. It hurt the home crowd, but the episode still works. Gruden's whole thing is that he loves every stadium he walks into, no matter who wins.

The full Auburn episode is up now, so you can watch the facility tour, the Toomer's stop and the sideline stuff in one place.

Viva La Stool

@VivaLaStool

Watch @BarstoolGruden’s full Game Day at Auburn now: t.co/WyITm3zIPR

Next up is the next campus. Gruden already does the Gruden Family Football Show with his brother Jay and a weekly spot on Wake Up Barstool, and now he has a travel show on top of that. If the first episode is any sign, every stop is going to get a Gruden rant about how great the place is, some old coaching stories and at least 1 stadium worker who deserves a pay bump. Auburn set the bar high. Whoever's next needs a good video board operator.