BYU football: Cougars officially hire LSU’s Jeff Grimes as offensive coordinator
BYU football announced on Thursday that LSU offensive line coach and running game coordinator Jeff Grimes is the Cougars’ new offensive coordinator.
BYU football has found its man.
After reports surfaced late Wednesday night, BYU football officially announced the hiring of Jeff Grimes on Thursday morning.
Grimes has spent the last four seasons with the LSU Tigers, serving as the team’s offensive line coach and running game coordinator.
Before Grimes was with the Tigers, he coached at Hardin-Simmons, Boise State, Arizona State, BYU, Colorado, Auburn and Virginia Tech. Grimes was a coach on the Auburn team that won the National Championship in 2010.
So not only did Grimes want to return to BYU football, but he wanted to return after seeing how abysmal the Cougars were offensively this season. Grimes even saw them first-hand, as the Cougars got walloped by the Tigers 27-0 in the Superdome. That should be an indication that Grimes A) Was ready for this opportunity, B) Wanted this opportunity at BYU and C) Has a plan to fix the Cougars.
How important was Grimes to the Tigers? Well, according to a number of reports, LSU and head coach Ed Orgeron offered him a raise earlier this week to remain in the Bayou.
And he still came back to Provo.
That’s incredibly good news for a BYU football program that is running out of time to string together successful seasons in hopes of getting a P5 offer in 2023-24.
My Take
While some have derided the hire due to Grimes’ lack of experience, those criticisms seem largely incorrect. Grimes may not have been an offensive coordinator, but he’s spent 22 years coaching NCAA football at a high level – including more than a decade in P5 conferences. He’s been successful everywhere he’s been and the hire shows something unique.
It shows an entirely new, deeper commitment to BYU football by the administration. Just last week we wrote about how the entire program needed a united vision – and it appears they have it now.
Get good coaches, let them work, make the team better. Lather, rinse, repeat.
It will be interesting to see what other moves Grimes makes now. Kalani Sitake has campaigned for the autonomy necessary to make a team successful, so one would imagine Grimes will be making some changes.
We’ll stay tuned to what those changes will be. But in any event, BYU football fans should be ecstatic about this hire. I know it’s hard losing a legend, and some will probably never forgive the Cougars for letting Detmer go, but this hire is a big-time get.