Who Knew That Ryan Grubb Has Such a Wide-Ranging Reputation?
As Kalen DeBoer and his coaching staff put a broken University of Washington football team back together again, the role of offensive coordinator wields as much influence over the Huskies as it ever has.
A year ago, John Donovan's offense simply didn't work. Or else did you not notice that the UW scored 7 points against Montana at home? Or that this team scored only a touchdown and a field goal the following week at Michigan?
That set the tone for a 4-8 season in which the Huskies scrambled to find yards and the end zone, leading to Donovan's in-season firing after nine games. The embattled offensive braintrust even lost his job a week before UW coach Jimmy Lake was canned.
Meanwhile, Fresno State's offense, under the direction of current Husky offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, led the Mountain West last season by piling up 464.8 yards per game and scored 33.4 points per outing — or about 140 yards and two touchdowns more than the UW each Saturday.
Lake never knew Donovan until he hired him for the Husky OC job back in January 2020 to replace the fired Bush Hamdan, now the quarterbacks coach at Missouri.
Jimmy, meet John.
Consider that DeBoer and Grubb are coaching together in their fourth college program — at the UW, Fresno State, Eastern Michigan and Sioux Falls — and building on a relationship that stretches 15 years.
They know each other. Rely on each other. Game plan together. Trust each other.
So it's probably not all that surprising that Grubb, with all of those big Fresno State offensive numbers behind him compiled over the past couple of seasons, shows up on one of those preseason college rankings, one compiled by Oklahoma's tireless Big Game Boomer, pegged as the nation's 23rd best offensive coordinator.
No one on DeBoer's coaching staff, not even DeBoer himself, is going to top that personal accolade entering this upcoming season.
Taking a closer look at the Boomer's list, Grubb ranks as the Pac-12's second-best offensive coordinator, behind only Oregon's Kenny Dillingham at No. 16.
The only other conference OCs acknowledged for their play-calling acumen here are Utah's Andy Ludwig (27) and Oregon State's Brian Lindgren (45).
Which means that the current coordinators from USC, UCLA, Stanford, California, Arizona State, Arizona, Colorado or Washington State are nowhere to be found.
Grubb has a reputation in place while the others are trying to build theirs.
He's responsible for helping turn Fresno State's Jake Haener, the former UW quarterback, into a second-team All-Mountain West selection and likely an NFL prospect.
While some Husky fans groused about the retention of offensive-line coach Scott Huff, as the only Lake coach to survive the purge, it should be noted that Grubb previously served as the O-line coach at Fresno State for two years for Jeff Tedford before replacing DeBoer as the OC, and at Eastern Michigan and Sioux Falls.
So he brings expertise in every phase of the offense. DeBoer didn't have to introduce himself to the guy either.
Consider Grubb a significant UW upgrade in a year's time.
Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Husky FanNation stories as soon as they’re published.
Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.
Find Husky FanNation on Facebook by searching: Husky Maven/Sports Illustrated
Follow Dan Raley of Husky FanNation on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven