Jeff Grimes (born September 23, 1968) is an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

coach, and the

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator (OC) is a Coach (sport), coach responsible for a gridiron football team's offense (American football), offense. Generally, the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second ...

for the

Wisconsin Badgers The Wisconsin Badgers are the College athletics in the United States, athletic teams representing the University of Wisconsin–Madison. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I ...

. He was previously the offensive coordinator at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

(2024),

Baylor University Baylor University is a Private university, private Baptist research university in Waco, Texas, United States. It was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Te ...

(2021 to 2023) and

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

(BYU) (2017 to 2020),

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

's (LSU) offensive line coach and run game coordinator (2014 to 2017), and the offensive line coach at both

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

(2013) and

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...

(2009 to 2012). In addition, he was the

assistant head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

, run game coordinator and offensive line coach at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

(2007 to 2008), BYU's offensive line coach (2004 to 2006), offensive line coach and run game coordinator at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

(ASU) (2001 to 2003), and offensive line coach at

Boise State University Boise State University (BSU) is a Public university, public research university in Boise, Idaho, United States. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has b ...

(BSU) (2000).

Playing career

Grimes earned four letters as an offensive tackle for the

University of Texas-El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas, United States. Founded in 1913 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy, it is the third oldest academic component of the University of Texas System ...

(UTEP)

Miners A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face (mining), face; cutt ...

from 1987 to 1990. He was coached by

Marty Mornhinweg Marty Mornhinweg (born March 29, 1962) is an American football coach and former player who was most recently a senior offensive consultant for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He was the offensive coordinator for th ...

(QB coach), Dave Toub (strength coach),

Andy Reid Andrew Walter Reid (born March 19, 1958) is an American professional American football, football coach who is the head coach for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). Reid was previously the head coach of the Philadelphi ...

(offensive line coach), and

Dirk Koetter Dirk Jeffrey Koetter ( ; born February 5, 1959) is an American former college and professional football coach. He recently served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Boise State. He was the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccane ...

(offensive coordinator). Grimes was not drafted into the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL), but had a brief professional career, participating in training camp with both the

Los Angeles Raiders The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). The Raiders played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural ...

and the

World League of American Football NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa) was a professional American football league that functioned as the List of developmental and minor sports leagues, developmental minor league of the Nati ...

's San Antonio Riders.

Coaching career

Early career

Grimes began coaching in 1993 as a high school coach at Riverside High School in

El Paso El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. After two years as the offensive coordinator and line coach there, he moved to the college ranks and started working as a graduate assistant under

Ken Hatfield Kenneth Wahl Hatfield (born June 6, 1943) is an American former college football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the United States Air Force Academy (1979–1983), the University of Arkansas (1984–1989), Clemson Unive ...

Rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

in 1995. He spent the next two seasons in the same position under R. C. Slocum at

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

, while serving under line coach

Mike Sherman Michael Francis Sherman (born December 19, 1954) is an American gridiron football coach and former player who most recently was the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was the head coach of the Green B ...

, before receiving his first full-time college position in 1998 as offensive line coach at Hardin–Simmons, under Jimmie Keeling. The Cowboys were 21-2 during his tenure, averaged 39.4 points per game and reached the national semifinals in 1999.

Boise State

In 2000, Grimes was hired as the offensive line coach at BSU under his former college football coach, Koetter. Grimes worked alongside

Dan Hawkins Dan, Danny or Daniel Hawkins may refer to: * Dan Hawkins (American football) (born 1960), American football coach and former player and sportscaster * Daniel Hawkins (politician) (born 1960), American politician in the Kansas House of Representat ...

. In the season at BSU, the offensive line he coached helped the Broncos lead the nation in scoring offense and accumulate 175 rushing yards per game.

Arizona State

In 2001, when Koetter was hired as the head coach at ASU, Grimes followed him to serve as the offensive line coach and run game coordinator. Grimes had great success at ASU, with four of the 2001 seniors drafted into the NFL (just the second time that had been done at any school since the NFL adopted the seven-round draft format in 1993). He helped orchestrate a solid rushing attack, tutoring Loren Wade to break the ASU freshman rushing record while leading the

Pac-10 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl ...

in yards per carry.

BYU

In 2004, Grimes was hired as the offensive line coach at BYU, under head coach Gary Crowton. After Crowton resigned following the 2004 season, newly promoted head coach

Bronco Mendenhall Marc Bronco Clay Mendenhall (born February 21, 1966) is an American college football coach who is the head coach at Utah State University (USU). He was previously the head coach at the University of New Mexico (UNM) for the 2024 season, the Unive ...

decided to keep Grimes on his staff. The 2006 BYU linemen Grimes coached blocked for the nation's fourth best offense, averaging over 465 yards per game including 141.9 on the ground, and were a large part of the Cougars winning the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

championship. BYU finished 11–2 and ranked 15th in the

Coaches' Poll In the United States, the Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I (NCAA), Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I (NCAA), Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. ...

Colorado

In February 2007, Grimes was hired as the assistant head coach, offensive line coach and run game coordinator at the University of Colorado, under head coach Hawkins. Grimes and Hawkins had previously worked together at BSU and Grimes also served with Colorado offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich at ASU.

Auburn

In January 2009, Grimes was hired by new head coach

Gene Chizik Eugene C. Chizik Jr. (born December 28, 1961) is an American football coach who was most recently the defensive coordinator and Assistant Head Coach for Defense at North Carolina. A veteran of the coaching ranks, Chizik previously was UNC's defen ...

to coach the offensive line at Auburn. After the 2010 season, Grimes was interviewed by

Mack Brown William Mack Brown (born August 27, 1951) is an American former college football coach. Brown most recently coached at the University of North Carolina, where he had two stints, first from 1988 until 1997, and again from 2019 until his firing ...

to become the new offensive line coach at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

, where it was reported he would have become the highest paid coach at his position in the country. Ultimately, Grimes decided to stay at Auburn. At the end of the 2012 season, Chizik was fired by Auburn, with former offensive coordinator,

Gus Malzahn Arthur Gustav Malzahn III (; born October 28, 1965) is an American college football coach who is the offensive coordinator at Florida State. He was the head coach at the University of Central Florida ( UCF) from 2021 to 2024, Auburn University fr ...

, hired as head coach on December 4, 2012. Shortly after being hired, Malzahn announced that all assistant coaches were being released, thus ending Grimes' career at Auburn.

Virginia Tech

On January 18, 2013, Grimes was hired as the offensive line coach at

under head coach

Frank Beamer Franklin Mitchell Beamer (born October 18, 1946) is an American former college football player and coach, most notably for the Virginia Tech Hokies football, Virginia Tech Hokies. Beamer was a cornerback, defensive cornerback for Virginia Tec ...

. Grimes was hired alongside offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach

Scot Loeffler Scot Loeffler (born November 1, 1974) is an American college football coach and former player who is currently the quarterbacks coach for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League. Prior to that, he was the head coach at Bowling Gre ...

(also formerly of Auburn) and wide receivers coach

Aaron Moorehead Aaron Matthew Moorehead (born November 5, 1980) is an American football coach and former wide receiver who is the wide receivers coach for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as an assistant coac ...

(formerly of

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

LSU

In 2014, following Virginia Tech's 2013 bowl game, Grimes was named the offensive line coach at LSU, under head coach

Les Miles Leslie Edwin Miles (born November 10, 1953) is a former American football coach. He most recently served as the head coach at Kansas. His head coaching career began with the Oklahoma State Cowboys, where he coached from 2001 to 2004. Following t ...

, replacing Greg Studrawa. The news was unofficially released on January 15, 2014, and later confirmed by Virginia Tech's running backs coach, Shane Beamer.

BYU (second stint)

In December 2017, Grimes was named the offensive coordinator at BYU, under head coach

Kalani Sitake Kelaokalani Fifita "Kalani" Sitake (born October 10, 1975) is a Tongan–American American football, football coach and former player. He has been the head football coach at Brigham Young University (BYU) since 2015, and is the first Demographic ...

, replacing Ty Detmer. During his tenure at BYU, Grimes developed BYU quarterback Zach Wilson, who threw for a career-high 3,692 passing yards, 33 touchdowns and 3 interceptions with a passer rating of 196.4 in 2020. That season, Grimes' offense ranked 3rd nationally in scoring offense (43.5 PPG) and was the leader in yards per play (7.84). In 2020, Grimes was a finalist for the

Broyles Award The Broyles Award is an annual award given to honor the best assistant coach in college football. First awarded in 1996, it was named after former University of Arkansas men's athletic director Frank Broyles. The award is presented in Little ...

, given annually to the best assistant coach in college football.

Baylor

On January 4, 2021, Grimes was named the offensive coordinator at Baylor under head coach

Dave Aranda David Christopher Aranda (born September 29, 1976) is an American football coach. He is the head football coach at Baylor University, a position he has held since 2020. He previously served as the defensive coordinator at LSU, Wisconsin, Utah St ...

, replacing

Larry Fedora Herbert Lawrence Fedora (born September 10, 1962) is an American football coach and former player who is the former coach and General manager (American football), general manager for the New Orleans Breakers (2022), New Orleans Breakers of the Un ...

. In his first season with Baylor, Grimes was again a finalist for the Broyles Award, as Baylor posted a 12–2 record and won the Big 12 conference title. Afterwards the team regressed, and Grimes was dismissed following the 2023 season amidst other changes to the program.

Kansas

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

hired Grimes in December 2023 as offensive coordinator and assistant head coach under

Lance Leipold Lance Leipold ( ; born May 6, 1964) is an American college football coach who is the head football coach at the University of Kansas, a position he has held since 2021. He was the head football coach at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater fr ...

. He replaced Andy Kotelnicki, who departed after the season to take the same job at

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

Personal life

Grimes graduated from UTEP in 1991 with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in education, and earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in education administration from

in 1997, while serving as a

graduate assistant A graduate assistant serves in a support role at a university, usually while completing post-graduate education. The assistant typically helps professors with instructional responsibilities as teaching assistants or with academic research resp ...

. Grimes is married to Sheri Hermesmeyer-Grimes, a former Aggies volleyball player, and they are the parents of four children.

References

External links

Auburn Tigers bio

Colorado Buffaloes bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grimes, Jeff 1968 births Living people American football offensive tackles Arizona State Sun Devils football coaches Auburn Tigers football coaches Boise State Broncos football coaches BYU Cougars football coaches Colorado Buffaloes football coaches LSU Tigers football coaches Rice Owls football coaches Texas A&M Aggies football coaches UTEP Miners football players Players of American football from Garland, Texas