Oklahoma football: Alex Grinch ‘huge get’ for OU, says Iowa State head coach

The sincerest form of recognition is that which comes from one’s peers, and new Oklahoma football defensive architect Alex Grinch has earned his share.

At 38 years old, Grinch is relatively young in the college football coaching fraternity, but he has already earned a reputation as one of the brightest defensive minds in the game today. It’s not by coincidence that Grinch is now at Oklahoma.

Both he and head coach Lincoln Riley are proteges of veteran college head coach Mike Leach, who, as many Sooner fans recall, was the OU offensive coordinator the first season under Bob Stoops.

Riley was 33 when Stoops hired him in 2015 to run the Oklahoma offense, touting him at the time as one of the best young offensive minds in the game. Earlier this year, Riley reached out with the same idea in mind in bringing in Grinch to revamp a defense that has been among the worst in college football the past few years.

Leach, who helped groom both Riley and the new Sooner defensive coordinator to what they’ve become today, obviously has great things to says about Grinch, who served three seasons in the same role at Washington State. But Leach isn’t the only one.

Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell and Grinch were college teammates at Mount Union, was asked by reporters at Big 12 Media Days this week how he thought his friend and former teammate would do in the enormous task he has ahead of him at Oklahoma:

"“Alex (is) an unbelievable student of the game,” Campbell said. “He was a guy that was always in the right place at the right time. You go and see what he did at Washington State, and what he did there was second to none.”"

He (Grinch) gained more knowledge and valuable experience last season working alongside Greg Schiano at Ohio State, enabling him to see how an elite program like Oklahoma works, the Iowa State head coach said.

"“Now you get that experience with that unbelievable leadership, and I think what Oklahoma is getting is one of the best coaches in college football today.“I think he’s a great football mind and, on top of that, a great teacher. I think it’s a huge get for Oklahoma football.”"

The season before Grinch arrived at Washington State, in 2015, the Cougars ranked 97th in the country in total defense. Sound familiar?

Leach told Ryan Aber of The Oklahoman earlier this year that the WSU defense played passively before Grinch arrived.

“I thought he brought a lot of energy and had a plan…and it was a clear, succinct plan,” Leach said.

The Washington State defense got better every year that Grinch was there. His last season there, the Cougars were ranked 16th nationally in total defense.

And he did it primarily the same way he proposes to go about things at OU, playing aggressively and attacking the ball and creating more takeaways.

“Takeaways equal victories,” Grinch told ESPN several years ago and cited again by The Oklahoman’s Aber this year. “It’s the only reason we’re out there, to get the ball back for the offense.”

And when you give an outstanding offense like Oklahoma’s more possessions and scoring opportunities, good things generally happen.