Jon Gruden fires up Navy locker room after win

Gruden has stood in a lot of NFL locker rooms. This one was in Annapolis, under a sign that reads 'Tradition Never Graduates', and the full video went up on his Barstool channel Monday.

Jon Gruden

@BarstoolGruden

I love the Midshipmen. What a great night.

'I love the Midshipmen' is not a line you usually hear from a guy whose whole brand is NFL quarterbacks and Gruden Grinders. It works here because the room was already going. Players were jumping, phones were up, and the speech just added to it. Barstool shared the same moment and said Gruden was 'FIRED UP' in there, and nobody watching the clip will argue.

Jon Gruden

@BarstoolGruden

There's nothing like being in the locker room after a win!

That second angle is the better one. There's a gold Navy helmet held up over the crowd, a giant cardboard face bobbing around that is almost certainly a gag about the Barstool visit, and a player in a No. 16 jersey riding his teammates' shoulders. 'There's nothing like being in the locker room after a win' is about as Gruden as a sentence gets, and this room proves him right.

The night started a lot quieter than it ended. Before kickoff at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, the anthem played with officers saluting on the field and midshipmen packed into the stands behind them.

Cons

@CaptainCons

🫡🇺🇸

Jake Malasek@jakemalasek

Gruden was in an absolute pretzel on what to do during the anthem at Navy.

The most recent game in Annapolis was Saturday's 34-26 win over Tulsa, and Navy needed 2 fourth-quarter touchdowns to put it away. Jackson Gutierrez came in for the injured Braxton Woodson at quarterback and ran for 232 yards and 3 touchdowns. As a team, Navy ran for 386 yards and never punted. That's the triple-option grind a guy who coined 'Gruden grinder' should appreciate.

This is the best way to use Gruden at Barstool. Picks and Monday-morning film are fine, but dropping a Super Bowl-winning coach into a service academy locker room after a win is something only he can do. The room clearly loved it, and he loved it right back. If Barstool sends him to another academy, Army-Navy in December is the obvious one.