« on: August 16, 2011, 08:04:53 AM »
http://www.statesman.com/sports/collegefootball/auburn-line-coach-jeff-grimes-takes-cerebral-approach-1748336.html?printArticle=yAuburn line coach Jeff Grimes takes cerebral approach
By John Zenor
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 7:58 p.m. Monday, Aug. 15, 2011
Jeff Grimes takes a professorial approach to coaching offensive linemen.
The Auburn assistant isn't much of a screamer. He'd rather gather his scruffy, barrel-chested 300-pound pupils around — and read to them. He picks passages from his favored books daily during preseason camp, and this season something from the young adult section might have been appropriate with four new starters.
The cerebral Grimes turned down an offer from Texas coach Mack Brown for the same position to return to a job where he'll open the season possibly starting multiple freshmen.
"Most guys who get offered the opportunity to go to Texas, go," said Grimes, a father of four with wife Sheri . " It was a very flattering offer but the bottom line is it wasn't the right situation for me and my family. There were just too many positives on this side to walk away from."
Grimes had the luxury of coaching a veteran group of linemen the past two seasons. He had four seniors and a junior — tackle Brandon Mosley — starting in the national championship game against Oregon.
Mosley returns and is a preseason All-Southeastern Conference first-team pick. A.J. Greene, who was starting at right tackle until a season-ending injury, is also back, along with senior backup Jarod Cooper.
Beyond that, Grimes has walk-on Blake Burgess and freshman Reese Dismukes battling at center. Highly touted freshmen Christian Westerman, Greg Robinson and Thomas O'Reilly also could be in the mix for starting jobs when the season starts Sept. 3 against Utah State. The dynamic has changed dramatically.
Grimes, a former UTEP tackle who counts Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid as one of his mentors, hasn't changed his motivational technique.
His office desk and shelves include bookmarked, dog-eared and highlighted books on everything from business to Theodore Roosevelt and Colin Powell. Last year's choice was Jim Collins' "Good To Great." One of his favorites is Steven Pressfield's historical novel "Gates of Fire," the basis for the movie "300."
He had little rugs and T-shirts made with "5" printed in the style of the movie's "3."
"My deal is if those 300 men were willing to sacrifice and they changed the course of the world, five guys with the right mentality can change the course of a program," Grimes said, talking as easily about Greek city-states and the Battle of Thermopylae as about blocking techniques.
Apparently the players can relate to Grimes, too, including onetime Texas commitment Westerman, who said he was sold after watching Grimes at work in a couple of practices.
" The way he coaches is something that I haven't seen by any other coach, and I like it a lot," he said.
Grimes is a relatively low-profile figure on a staff that includes flamboyant receivers coach Trooper Taylor and offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn. But Taylor said Grimes is a good enough recruiter that "when you get Jeff in the home, it's easy."
"I wish you could be a fly on the wall and just listen to him teach," Taylor said. "It sounds like whoever your favorite teacher was in high school."
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