Jim Eustice had seen the Barstool Sports videos posted by his old quarterbacks coach at Southeast Missouri State, Jon Gruden.

The Super Bowl champion coach and flamboyant media personality has been making a special series for Barstool Sports going through boxes he’s received full of gear from college programs from around the country.

“Lots of our old college buddies were wondering when SEMO was going to send him one. All of a sudden, there it was from SEMO,” Eustice said.

Eustice, the former St. Bede coach now at Mendota, just didn’t know that segment was going to make him famous.

On his post, Gruden said “This box has a very special place in my heart … It’s where I got my first full-time coaching job.”

Gruden, as he does, carries the box into his “Gruden’s QB Class” office with the letters “SEMO” on the side. Just a few seconds into opening the box, after giving a brief history of SEMO, Gruden says the Redhawks were “quarterbacked by Jim ‘Freaking’ Eustice.”

“I was not expecting the ‘Jim Freaking Eustice’ there. It was pretty cool,” Eustice said. “It was just fun the way he said it. It was unexpected, that’s for sure. Kind of cool. Got a lot of mileage out of it on social media. It was fun with all the reaction.

“I texted him and said, ‘Jim Freaking Eustice. That’s hilarious. My phone and social media been blowing up.’ He said, ‘That’s awesome, brother. Love ya’. Hope you’re doing well.’”

Eustice may not have known how far his new coach at SEMO back in 1988 would go, but Gruden sure did.

“I remember the day I met him,” Eustice said. “Bill Maskell, the head coach, called me down to his office. I remember I got down there, and Jon was standing there. Jon was 24, and I was 21. He was smaller than me, sandy blonde hair.

“Coach Maskell said, ‘Jim, I want to introduce you to your new quarterbacks coach, Jon Gruden,’ and, ‘Jon, this is your quarterback, Jim Eustice.’

“Jon walked up to me, looked me right in the eye and said, ‘Jim, it’s great to meet you. I’m going to be an NFL head coach someday.’ I think I said, ‘Cool,’ or ‘That’s great,’ or something like that. I remember the look in his eyes.

“He’s hilarious. The way he talked (on the video), that’s the way he was when he was 24 and coaching me. That enthusiasm and just the way he talks.”

At the time of their meeting in March of 1988, Gruden wasn’t on the SEMO payroll yet, living in Howard Johnsons and tearing up carpet just to make ends meet for two months before he got paid, he said.

That determination led him to land that first NFL job 10 years later with the then-Oakland Raiders in 1998 and eventually winning a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002 against the Raiders.

He was an NFL head coach for 15 years, including two stints with the Raiders, sporting a 117-112 record.

But his very first quarterback was Eustice.

Eustice was a fourth-year junior at the time, having played two years at IVCC in 1985 and 1986 out of Ottawa Marquette. He received a full ride to SEMO in 1987, taking over as the Redhawks’ starting QB for the 1988 and 1989 seasons.

“He had just got done with his grad assistantship at Tennessee under Walt Harris. So that was his first real job as quarterbacks coach at SEMO for the 1988 season, and I was his first quarterback,” Eustice said.

“Ultimately when you’re playing high school and lucky enough to go to college, you’ve got memories and things that you look back on. I played for him and was his first quarterback, which is pretty cool with the run he’s had. It’s all fun.”

Eustice said Gruden was a real mastermind when it came to breaking down film.

“When he was a grad assistant at Tennessee, his job was to splice the film,” Eustice said. “When he showed up at SEMO, he had boxes of these old 16 MM reels. One passing concept would be on one reel of film, and he would have 30 plays of that pass route against a Cover-3. Then the next 30 plays would be that pass route against a Cover-2. And the next 30 plays would be against a 2-man, and the next 30 plays would be against a Cover-0.

“Man, we used to watch film, and it would be with the clicker. He’d say, ‘Let’s watch his play. Do this route now.’ We’d spend an hour and half going over 120, 150 plays of that one pass route against different coverages.”

Gruden’s practices worked wonders for Eustice.

“I think we broke the 23-year-old season passing record with 1,800 or 1,900 yards, something like that,” he said. “Broke it the next year under (Marty) Mornhinweg (with 2,128), and, geez, it’s been broken a whole bunch of times after that. The last time I looked, I think I may be 9 or 10 now.”

Mornhinweg became the next future NFL head coach Eustice would play for when Gruden departed in 1988. Mornhinweg became the Redhawks QB coach and offensive coordinator and went on to a long career in the NFL, including two years as head coach of the Lions and stints as OC for the Eagles, Jets and Ravens.

Eustice and Gruden stay in touch once or twice a year by text.

“I told him I was taking over a new program, we need to talk sometime. He said, ‘Let’s do that,’ ” Eustice said. “So I don’t know if we’ll be doing that. He’s traveling all over the country to NFL and colleges.”

Eustice is also mentioned in the book Gruden wrote in 2001 after winning the Super Bowl, “Do You Love Football?: Winning with Heart, Passion, and Not Much Sleep.”

The Mendota coach has a hard copy of the book and got Gruden’s autograph.

“He signed it and said, ‘Jim, thanks or getting me started, Coach Gruden,’ ” Eustice said.

Eustice was considering sending Gruden a box of Mendota Trojans gear, but was afraid that might open up a whole can of worms for the coach adding high schools into the mix.

— Kevin Hieronymus has been the BCR Sports Editor since 1986. Contact him at khieronymus@bcrnews.com