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Report tonight from Football Scoop has LSU offensive line coach Jeff Grimes leaving to take the offensive coordinator job at BYU. Grimes will, reportedly stay on through next week’s early signing period, and the Citrus Bowl, which is crucial, given the multiple offensive line recruits in LSU’s 2018 class.
Grimes has generally been a lightning rod here — he was a dynamite recruiter, but struggled with attrition of some of those recruits over the last two years. Grimes did do a strong job this year of developing a line that featured three different true freshmen in prominent roles. Grimes also coached the 2016 LSU offensive line, which was rated as the top college line in the country by Pro Football Focus.
Still, you hire good people, and other programs will want to give them jobs as well. Grimes is leaving for a promotion, and you can’t fault him for that. This creates a significant hole in the staff, with an area of the team that could set up as the single strength of the offense in 2018 with at least four full-time starters returning, plus two major junior college prospects coming in.
No ideas as of now for potential replacements, but we’ll do some digging and get on it soon.