Grimes Headed To Auburn

BOULDER ? Jeff Grimes, the assistant head coach and offensive line coach for the University of Colorado football team the past two seasons, has accepted a position at Auburn University, CU head coach Dan Hawkins confirmed Sunday.

Grimes, who also served as the running game coordinator for the Buffaloes, will be the Tigers offensive line coach.

Grimes is just the second CU assistant to leave in Hawkins’ three years; he had replaced the only other, Chris Strausser, who returned to Boise State after spending one year in Boulder. There was no change in the Colorado coaching staff between the 2007 and 2008 seasons for the first time in two decades.

"Jeff is a good man, friend, and coach, we will miss him,” Hawkins said. “We wish him and his family the best. We are fortunate that we have been able to keep the majority of our staff together.”

Grimes came to Colorado from BYU, where he coached the offensive line for the 2004 through 2006 seasons. He had all kinds of ties to Hawkins’ CU staff; he was on the 2000 Boise State staff when Hawkins was an assistant. He was the offensive line coach that season, before moving on to Arizona State where he worked the next three years (2001-03) as the O-line coach in addition to serving as running game coordinator. At ASU, he worked closely with current CU offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich, who spent five years on the Sun Devil staff before joining Hawkins in Boulder.

His first year in Boulder, Grimes tutored a pair of true freshmen that started on the offensive line for the first time in program history and improved to the point where they allowed just four sacks the last five games of the year. In his second season, the offensive line was struck by the injury bug losing two starters for the remainder of the season in the first four games. By season’s end, the two-deep included five true or redshirt freshmen, two of which were in the starting lineup. Their play also dramatically improved by the end of the year from the time they were thrown to the fire for the conference opener against No. 4 Texas.

Hawkins will immediately open the search for Grimes’ replacement.

Colorado University Athletics