Kansas football hires Jeff Grimes as assistant head coach/offensive coordinator
LAWRENCE — Kansas football head coach Lance Leipold announced Dec. 7 that the team hired Jeff Grimes as its new assistant head coach/offensive coordinator.
Grimes follows Andy Kotelnicki, who departed the program for position at Penn State. Grimes was most recently on the staff at Baylor this past season, but wasn’t retained. He joins a Jayhawks team that is about to play in its second-straight bowl game for the first time in more than a decade.
“We’re excited to welcome Jeff, his wife Sheri and four children, Bailey, Jada, Garrison and Greydon to Lawrence,” Leipold said in a KU release. “Jeff is a coach with a lot of experience and is a great relationship-builder, football mind and a high-quality person. He will be a great fit with our staff and offensive philosophy and is an exciting addition.”
Grimes’ experience at the college level is extensive, especially at Power Five programs. He has coached a number of different positions, in addition to being an offensive coordinator. At Baylor he also coached tight ends, which fits in well at Kansas because that was the position Kotelnicki was responsible for as well.
Grimes has twice recently been a finalist for the Broyles Award, which is awarded each year to the top assistant coach in the nation. That was at BYU in 2020 and Baylor in 2021. At Baylor, he helped the Bears to a Big 12 Conference title that year.
“My family and I are thrilled to join the KU program and be a part of what Coach Leipold and his staff are building in Lawrence,” Grimes said in the KU release. “I’ve admired Kansas Football over these last few years, and it has been impossible to ignore the momentum behind the program. That momentum doesn’t happen without strong alignment among tremendous people committed to a common goal. I get fired up just thinking about the opportunity to coach these talented players, and I can’t wait to get started. Rock Chalk!”
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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas football hires Jeff Grimes as AHC/offensive coordinator
