Ohio State has been a part of Alex Grinch’s life since the day he was born.
Now, more than 37 years after he was born at The Ohio State University Medical Center, Grinch is preparing for his first season as an assistant coach for the Ohio State football team.
As a kid growing up in the Columbus suburb of Grove City, Grinch was an Ohio State football fan, as his grandparents were season-ticket holders. But after playing college football at Mount Union, and leaving the state of Ohio in 2002 to begin his coaching career as a graduate assistant for his uncle, Gary Pinkel, at Missouri, Grinch never dreamed that he would have the opportunity to coach for the Buckeyes.
"I don’t think I was naive enough to think or dream of that," Grinch said Wednesday during his introductory press conference as the Buckeyes’ new co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach. "I think those kind of dreams kind of go away once you realize how hard this business is, and how many guys are out there that are exceptional coaches that aren’t presented with opportunities."
That all changed a few months ago, however, when Grinch was contacted by Ohio State coach Urban Meyer for an opportunity to join his coaching staff – an opportunity that for Grinch, even though he was the defensive coordinator and secondary coach at Washington State, was too good to pass up.
A main reason why Grinch chose to leave Pullman for Columbus, he says, was the opportunity to work with one of the best coaching staffs in the country, led by Meyer and defensive coordinator Greg Schiano, who has more than a decade of head coaching experience in his own right.
"It doesn’t happen. That’s just the reality of it. Those opportunities don’t present themselves in this profession," Grinch said of the opportunity to work with two coaches of Meyer and Schiano’s caliber. "So that’s something that is absolutely thrilling.
"Obviously, once you get in the walls and once you get into the building and once you get in the meeting room and ultimately practice, the focus is making sure that you’re doing right by this program, doing a great job from a developmental standpoint with those guys, coaching the room and all those things," Grinch added. "But to be around an elite group of coaches and an elite leadership, that doesn’t happen very often. I’ve been in it long enough to appreciate it, and so absolutely, selfishly, awfully excited to be able to work for and work with this staff."
An added incentive for Grinch to take the job, though, was an opportunity to return to the place that he – and his wife, Rebecca, who is from Alliance, Ohio – consider home.
"Ohio is home," Grinch said. "Is that the driving force in this opportunity? No. It’s the program, it’s the university. But obviously, to suggest that’s not an added bonus, I’d be lying to you."
In the first few weeks after Grinch was hired, there were rumors that Schiano would leave Ohio State for a job in the NFL, leading to speculation that Grinch would replace him as defensive coordinator. It remains presumable that Schiano, who was set to become Tennessee’s head coach in November before the Volunteers backed out at the last minute, could have other opportunities worth considering in the years to come. Grinch says he was under no illusions, however, that he would be Ohio State’s defensive coordinator this year, nor did he take the job with the expectation that he would become Ohio State’s defensive coordinator in the future.
"I took this role knowing what the role was going to be, so there was no looking forward, nor is there now," Grinch said.
Although Grinch had full autonomy over his defense at Washington State, and will now have to defer to Schiano, Grinch said he has no concerns over fitting into his new role.
"My role here is to help in any way I can in terms of adding value to the defensive side of the ball, and adding value from a recruiting standpoint. And I think that’s the charge of any assistant coach at every program," Grinch said. "Whatever titles or roles that you’re given, your job is to exceed the expectations of the head coach, and obviously the expectations here are very, very high. So from that standpoint, I feel very comfortable in working with this coaching staff. And what a great group of mentors to young men, and you’re talking elite coaches, and I just keep coming back to that."
“Those opportunities don’t present themselves in this profession.”– Alex Grinch on working with Urban Meyer and Greg Schiano
Grinch, who spent four years coaching at New Hampshire and three years coaching at Wyoming in between a pair of three-year stints at Missouri and his three seasons at Washington State, said there are "probably more similarities than differences" between the defense he ran in Pullman and the defense that Ohio State’s coaching staff already ran in Columbus. Grinch, who orchestrated a brand of football he called "Speed D" at Washington State, said he sees the same style of aggressive play from the Buckeyes when he watches the film of Schiano’s defense.
Now, Grinch just wants to do whatever he can to enhance that, without counteracting any of the work that Meyer, Schiano – who was also the Buckeyes’ safeties coach for the past two years, but has now ceded that responsibility to Grinch – and the rest of Ohio State’s staff have already done.
"I would say the consistent thing (Grinch has learned) over time, from a success standpoint, is the leader in charge has a foundation, has a philosophy and everything that works within that organization kind of either builds toward that, or that is at the kind of forefront of every decision that’s made on the day-to-day basis," Grinch said. "When it works, that is absolutely the case. And I’ve been very, very fortunate to be around strong leadership over the course of my career, and certainly continuing that here."
Grinch expressed gratitude on Wednesday for Washington State head coach Mike Leach, for giving him the opportunity to run a defense for the first time three years ago. He credits much of his success as a coach to what he learned at Mount Union, where he played for legendary former Purple Raiders coach Larry Kehres, and to what he has learned from Pinkel, who he said taught him to have "attention to detail and discipline in everything you do."
In his first couple months at Ohio State, however, Grinch says he has already gotten a glimpse into what makes Meyer – who is going into his seventh season as Ohio State’s head coach – and the Buckeyes among college football’s elite.
"In terms of attention to detail and discipline and all those things, I certainly would use some of those same terms when you talk about this program and Coach Meyer and what he’s built. I think the uniqueness, I would suggest that I have felt, is a sense of urgency, a sense of intensity that I probably have only felt kind of being a part of new staffs in the past," Grinch said. "It feels like it’s a new staff, and one that’s trying to build a program, and I think that just stems from the high, high bar that he has set, Coach Meyer himself, and obviously the high bar at a place like Ohio State."
Grinch will take the field for his first practice with the Buckeyes in less than one week, as Ohio State begins spring football practice on March 6.
