BYU Football: Jeff Grimes to be Named Offensive Coordinator at Baylor

After turning around BYU's offense in three years at BYU, Jeff Grimes is moving on to Baylor.

BYU is officially in the market for a new offensive coordinator. On Monday morning, reports surfaced that Baylor was targeting BYU OC Jeff Grimes as their new offensive coordinator. Pete Thamel was the first to report the news:

Sources: Baylor is targeting BYU OC Jeff Grimes as the new offensive coordinator, and a deal is expected to be finalized today. Grimes was a finalist for the Broyles Award this year, as BYU finished No. 3 in scoring offense with 43.5 ppg.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 4, 2021

Sports Illustrated's Ross Dellenger confirmed the news, stating that the "deal is done."

#BYU OC Jeff Grimes is the new offensive coordinator at #Baylor, sources tell @SINow. Deal is done. Grimes and Dave Aranda worked together at #LSU. @PeteThamel first reported the potential move.

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) January 4, 2021

Grimes worked with Baylor Head Coach Dave Aranda at LSU. 

Jeff Grimes arrived at BYU in 2018 after an abysmal 2017 season for the Cougar offense. In 2017, BYU averaged 325 yards per game which ranked 118th in the country. Grimes completely turned BYU's offense around. In his final season at BYU, Grimes led a BYU offense that was top 10 in total yards per game and top 3 in scoring offense.

The search for the next offensive coordinator at BYU might be a quick one - BYU QB coach and passing coordinator seems like a natural fit for the position. Roderick is an ace recruiter and he has done an excellent job with the quarterbacks over the last few seasons. Grimes was in quarantine for the Boca Raton Bowl against UCF so Aaron Roderick took over play-calling duties - BYU's offense did not skip a beat. Roderick has play-calling experience beyond the Boca Raton Bowl, he was the co-offensive coordinator at Utah from 2015-2016.

If not Roderick, BYU has two other former offensive coordinators on their staff. Both Steve Clark and Fesi Sitake were offensive coordinators at Weber State prior to joining the staff at BYU. Given BYU's success on offense, an internal hire could make the most sense.

Now, all eyes will be on BYU offensive line coach Eric Mateos and other members of BYU's offensive staff. Mateos, in particular, was hired by Jeff Grimes in 2019 and he has done an excellent job building up BYU's offensive line. It feels like Eric Mateos is a candidate to follow Grimes to Baylor. 

You probably noticed that our site looks a little different. It is currently under construction and the commenting capability is turned off. While we work on some exciting updates to improve your experience, you can ask us questions through one of our social media channels:

Facebook - @BYUSportsIllustrated

Twitter - @SI_BYU and Casey Lundquist at @casey_lundquist

Instagram - @BYU_SI