Missouri safeties coach Alex Grinch to become Washington State DC
Missouri safeties coach Alex Grinch will become Washington State’s defensive coordinator, according to a source.
Grinch, a promising young defensive mind, is a skilled recruiter and coached the safeties at Missouri for three years. Over his tenure, Grinch helping the Tigers improve their pass defense from 72nd in yards allowed per pass attempt in 2012 (7.4) to 33rd in ‘13 (6.7) and 14th in ‘14 (6.2).
He’ll now set out to boost a Washington State defense that ranked 107th in yards allowed per play this season under defensive coordinator Mike Breske. Breske was fired at the end of the season.
Grinch joins the Cougars at an optimistic time. Washington State’s 2015 recruiting class ranks 30th in the country, according to Rivals.com, the Cougars’ highest ranking since 2002. Four-stars Kyahva Tezino and Thomas Toki are set to join Grinch’s defense.
Grinch began his college coaching career under Gary Pinkel at Missouri as a graduate assistant in 2002 before coaching cornerbacks at New Hampshire in 2005-06. He took over New Hampshire’s secondary and recruiting coordinator duties for ‘07 and ’08 and became the secondary coach at Wyoming for three seasons before returning to Missouri.
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