BYU football: Hiring a first-time OC is nothing new for the Cougars

Jeff Grimes is returning to BYU football as a first-time offensive coordinator. That’s nothing new for the Cougars, and no cause for panic.

It’s an offensive changing of the guard.

With Thursday’s official announcement, Jeff Grimes will return to BYU football to take the reins as the Cougars’ offensive coordinator.

Grimes spent two years at BYU (2003-04), serving as offensive line coach under Gary Crowton. He’s since refined his skills at some of the biggest programs in college football (Colorado, Auburn, Virginia Tech, LSU).

He brings more than 20 years of college coaching experience to the table. That kind of experience is hard to come by.

While no hiring is ever a guarantee, this is as close to a home run hire as the Cougars could get.

Sorry to say, but Andy Reid or Mike Leach aren’t coming through that door.

But of course, fans will be fans, and some have pointed to the one thing that Grimes doesn’t bring to the table: experience as an offensive coordinator.

While that’s true, it’s not the end of the world.

The truth is, BYU football isn’t a destination coaching spot. The Cougars aren’t going to convince many coaches to make a lateral move to come to Provo. They don’t have the Power Five status or deep pockets to make that happen.

BYU football will almost always have to sacrifice one of two things when hiring a head coach or coordinator: either FBS coaching experience or experience at the level they’re hired to coach.

The Cougars haven’t hired a head coach with previous collegiate head-coaching experience since Hal Kopp (1956-58).

When you move down a step to coordinator, the Cougars have had a total of 12 offensive coordinators or co-offensive coordinators since 1970.

Of those 12, only one had any previous experience as a collegiate offensive coordinator (Lance Reynolds). Two others had previous experience as a collegiate head coach, but never as the designated offensive coordinator. Those were Dave Kragthorpe and Doug Scovil.

Here’s the list of all 12 BYU offensive coordinators since 1970:

• Dave Kragthorpe 1970-75 (33-33-1)
• Doug Scovil 1976-77, 79-80 (41-7)
• Wally English 1978 (9-4)
• Roger French 1981-2000 (182-71-2)
• Norm Chow 1996-99 (37-15)
• Lance Reynolds 2000 (6-6)
• Mike Borich 2001-02 (17-9)
• Robbie Bosco 2003 (4-8)
• Todd Bradford 2003-04 (9-14)
• Robert Anae 2005-10, 13-15 (81-35)
• Brandon Doman 2011-12 (18-8)
• Ty Detmer 2016-17 (14-12)

The Cougars have had plenty of success with first-time offensive coordinators. Most of them brought plenty of college coaching experience into their time as coordinator, and drew on that experience to run successful offenses.

Ty Detmer had neither the experience as a college coach or as an offensive coordinator. That lack of experience left him little to draw on when creating and implementing the offense.

That’s not the case with Jeff Grimes. He has that experience to draw on. He has the tools to be a successful coordinator.

It’s time to give him that chance that he’s wanted and earned.