MOBILE, Ala. -- NC State's Ryan Finley used to watch Jon Gruden's popular QB Camp show on ESPN, during which the coach-turned-broadcaster prepped college quarterbacks for the NFL draft in an intimate setting.
"Those were entertaining," Finley said, "and definitely informational."
Missouri's Drew Lock watched, too. And Duke's Daniel Jones. And Penn State's Trace McSorley.
They all had visions of appearing on the show and getting coached up by Gruden.
They almost made it on the first count, and definitely did on the second.
Because though the show was shuttered when Gruden returned to the NFL last year as the Oakland Raiders' coach, the four are getting extended QB Camps with Gruden this week ahead of the Senior Bowl (Saturday, 2:30 p.m. ET, NFL Network). They're all members of the North squad being led by the Raiders' coaching staff. But instead of Gruden working individually with the quarterbacks, he's doing so in a group setting, with the omnipresent whiteboard in the room for those moments when the coach needs a QB to diagram a play.
"He'll call you out, that's for sure," Finley said. "He'll call you out and you have to do some things. It's only making us better."
The coach's goal, he said, is to make the players on his team look good, rather than wear them down and weed them out. Of course, Gruden had his scouting report ready on his four quarterbacks, without needing written-down notes.
"Drew Lock is a talented, quick-armed customer at Missouri," Gruden said, adding that he wants to see how Lock handles being under center, as well as the shotgun and the no-huddle.
"I want to see him communicate. A lot of these colleges, they use a silent count, they don't get in the huddle. So the communication, the recognition of the defense and then the execution is what I'm after. And I'd like see him do it at a high level, because that's what the top picks have to do."
Lock had his "Chucky" moment in the first practice of the week.
"Yeah, so he got on me a little bit at the beginning about it, I was being a little quiet," Lock said sheepishly. "A little quiet to where I ended up picking it up, vocalizing a little more, kind of getting it from the gut a little bit, which is different. But like he says, the quarterbacks, we're 'Set, hut!' Or a clap. So it's a little different going a full cadence and getting the swing of that."
Gruden continued his on-the-fly scouting report.
"I like Finley, at NC State, I like his tape, got a lot of production," Gruden said. "Daniel Jones is going to be a first-round pick out of Duke. Been well schooled. We've got McSorley, not a big quarterback, but a tough guy. Got a lot of Rich Gannon, Jeff Garcia in him. Bulldog, fighter-type quarterback."
This situation begs the question for the impressionable college players on the most important job interviews of their young lives here at the Senior Bowl: How different is Jon Gruden, the TV star you grew up watching on ESPN's Monday Night Football, from Jon Gruden, your coach for a week?
All four quarterbacks smiled, much like the grin Derek Carr unveiled when Gruden was hired to work with him.
"Not much difference," Jones said of Gruden's TV persona versus his coaching persona. "I mean, he's super passionate and just, you can tell his love for the game. You can see that on TV and you can certainly sense it now.
"I was pumped. This week should be a lot of fun being around him."
It was fun until Jones threw back-to-back pick-sixes in Wednesday's practice, victimized by Delaware safety Nasir Adderley and South Dakota cornerback Jordan Brown. Still, Gruden stayed calm.
There have been flashes of intensity, though.
"I feel like on TV, he might express things a little differently than when he's out here at practice," Lock said with a laugh, no doubt referencing Gruden's penchant for using some blue language on the sidelines.
"But at the same time, his overall goal is to teach us and to get us the best reps and by doing that, he's teaching us really well. He came out here and he coached us hard. He'll coach us hard but that's just what he does. That's the coolest part about playing on this North team right now is with this staff -- you're going to learn a lot and be around some pretty incredible coaches."
Finley agreed.
"He's the same guy all the time, which is kind of cool," Finley said. "I definitely wanted to be on his team, let's put it that way. It's a great introduction to what the NFL's going to be like, and I think he definitely finds a way to get the best out of his players."
Added McSorley: "I was excited. I knew he was going to push, especially the quarterbacks, probably going to be as close to a full submersion of NFL you're going to get before actually getting to an NFL team. So I was excited that I was going to be working with him.
"He's real intense. You can tell he's passionate about football; that hasn't changed, obviously, from being in the booth. He's just a little more involved than he was in the booth. But it's been an amazing experience being with him this week, learning from him and just trying to absorb everything from him. He holds everyone to high standards. He's kind of a perfectionist, I guess, in a way, pushing guys."
But can Gruden push them all into NFL gigs?
It's unlikely, but this is their Gruden QB Camp Week, and no one can ever take that away from them. And to a lesser degree, the same is true for South signal-callers Will Grier from West Virginia, Auburn's Jarrett Stidham, Washington State's Gardner Minshew and Buffalo's Tyree Jackson, all of whom were slated to get Gruden for a day on Friday, when the coaching staffs have access to the opposing sides (Kyle Shanahan's San Francisco 49ers staff has the South).
"Talent," Gruden said, matter-of-factly, when asked what he needed to see in a quarterback. "You have to be able to make the throws, and you have to have some mobility and you have to have the intelligence.
"If you don't have those three things, this is not the league for you."
For Lock, landing Gruden as a coach was a pleasant surprise.
"I said, Holy cow, I chose to come to the Senior Bowl and then you figure out you're on the North team, it just adds a plus to it," Lock said. "You get to be coached by one of the greatest. He's known for being Gruden because of how good he is as a coach. He's got the intangibles that come with being a great coach. He loves ball and he loves to talk about ball, but he definitely knows his stuff."