DeBoer Hires His Fresno State OC to Join Him with Huskies

Ryan Grubb joins his offensive-minded coach in Seattle as the first new assistant revealed.

During his introductory news conference as University of Washington football coach, Kalen DeBoer deferred any questions about his potential coaching-staff hires to another time. 

Everything was happening so fast for him, agreeing to the job, signing a contract, meeting his new players and sitting in front of people now looking him up and down, that he wasn't prepared to name names.

Yet amid all of this frenzied activity, DeBoer, without identifying him, spoke about his trusted Fresno State offensive coordinator and how they seemed to know what each other was thinking at all times.

So it should be no surprise to anyone that Ryan Grubb announced on Monday he would leave Fresno State and become the new Husky offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for DeBoer — the first new assistant coach revealed.

The offensive-minded DeBoer explained how it was only in the past two seasons of his 22-year coaching career that he hadn't felt compelled to call every offensive play, obviously a nod to Grubb's abilities.

"I've got an offensive coordinator at Fresno State I've coached with the last 10 or 11 years now and he understands my style," DeBoer said. "We've worked together very closely."

Together, they were responsible for a wide-open and aggressive Fresno State offensive attack scoring 33.5 points, throwing for 330 yards and gaining 463.6 yards of total offense per game this past season.

Grubb, 46, previously coached with DeBoer at NAIA Sioux Falls, Eastern Michigan and Fresno State. 

He actually replaced DeBoer as the Fresno State offensive coordinator for Jeff Tedford's staff in 2019 after DeBoer spent that season at Indiana.

When DeBoer replaced Tedford as head coach, he kept Grubb as his offensive leader.

While UW offensive improvement is readily expected, Grubb steps into a coaching position that has underperformed for four years, replacing Bush Hamdan and John Donovan. 

Hamdan now coaches at Missouri, while Donovan was fired during the season at the UW.

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