One of Dan Mullen's assistant coaches is reportedly a candidate to take over at Mississippi State
Before Mississippi State hired Joe Moorhead, the program had a chance to name defensive coordinator Todd Grantham as Dan Mullen’s successor but did not take that opportunity.
Now it appears Mississippi State may be willing to make amends for not selecting Grantham when it had the opportunity to do so two years ago.
According to FootballScoop, Grantham is among the candidates currently being considered for the Mississippi State job. FootballScoop is also reporting Louisiana head coach Billy Napier and current Austin Peay head coach, and former Mississippi State assistant coach, Mark Hudspeth are also candidates for the role.
Grantham spent only one season in Starkville but he did a terrific job turning around one of the SEC’s worst defenses into a solid unit in one season’s time. Last offseason, Grantham nearly took the Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator position before ultimately turning it down and returning to Florida.
Following Mullen’s decision to leave Mississippi State for Florida, Grantham interviewed to take over in Starkville, but when he didn’t get the job, he followed Mullen to Gainesville.
You could argue Mississippi State made a mistake by not hiring Grantham when it had the chance but maybe this will be the program’s way of making it up to the noted defensive coach.
Good luck Todd, but hope you come back.
Nooooooooooooo
Garntham would be a good choice but not necessarily the best choice. Eliot of Clemson or Brent Venables would be an excellent choice!
Venables has had multiple opportunities to leave for better jobs. He seems content to be a DC forever.
I agree with UGADAWG78 Venables seems like the new Bud Foster…ie DC for Life. Not sure he wants the headaches associated with being the HC.
Venables is not going anywhere…he makes 2 million plus per year and his job is Defense, not being the CEO of a program. He has much less stress, and his Public Relations skills are not suitable for the Head Coach title. Plus he has some great talent signing on at Clempson right now. At least, that’s the way I see it.
I’d hate to see Grantham leave UF, he’s building something really special down there.
It truly would be a shame
They’d be crazy to not go after Billy Napier.
He’s got to be their #1 choice…I would think
It will be announced on Monday or Tuesday.
If so, that is a great fit for you guys. He’ll do much better than Moorhead.
Apparently, it won’t.
Yes please.
Lol
And Charlie Strong is Jobless. Too Perfect.
Would love to see Charlie back in O&B if Grantham does get chosen by MSU.
Charlie back would be too good to be true.
Oh please get Charlie!
Exactly what I was thinking. I would rather have a Charlie Strong defense over 3rd and Grantham any day.
Do you think Charlie would be happy being merely a “D” Coordinator, since he’s tasted that Head Coach Money ? He should have stayed at Louisville.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE VISIT MY GO FUND PAGE AND DONATE TO THE KEEP 3rd and GRANTHAM IN GAINESVILLE FOREVER FUND!!! This is awful news…
OK, Negan. You’re shouting again.
Just think, if Grantham was to leave and Charlie Strong took his place, you’d get to enjoy the two Gator coordinators from the 2006 and 2008 national championships. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Unfortunately… I like Charlie Strong…can’t imagine someone so classy taking orders from someone so not…
What I find really odd that for all the improvements Mullet and company have brought to lizardville…very hard to find a lizard lover begging for 3rd n Granth to stay…
Someone from the team that can’t win the big one in 40 years is taking potshots at their arch rival. Rich.
Every win is a big one, Rich…
I don’t get the “not classy” remarks. A couple snarky comments about a rival make him not classy? That’s a pretty big club. You may think Spurrier was funny –and he was hilarious– but he was far, far worse.
If Mullen acted like Kirby acts on the sidelines during games you Dawg fans would have a field day making all sorts of comments about epilepsy, seizures and gawd knows what else. But of course, Kirby is just passionate, right?
And when Kirby throws shade at Mullen during the SECCG press avails, no problem. He’s classy because he didn’t actually say anything critical, right?
Please.
As for Grantham, honestly, I’m a little ambivalent on him after this year. I think he got away from his signature blitzing and played way too much zone. Maybe he felt he had to. I don’t know. But I don’t feel the same way about him now that I did at the start of the season. I’m happy with him. Just not excited.
In all seriousness, I’m not sure Charlie’s going to be willing to take a coordinator job. He doesn’t need to work. USf still owes him $3 million. Probably depends upon how much he wants to coach. Another issue is the very fact that he and Mullen were opposite numbers on Meyer’s staff at Florida. One working for the other might be awkward, even though it’s not a situation where one guy got promoted over the other. On the flip side, Mullen’s an offensive guy, so his DC has a lot of autonomy.
But of course, this is all speculative. And I’m not sure Grantham would necessarily want the MSU job at this point. Billy Napier turned them down today.
Please, take him. We’ll pay you.
I have an idea…Take Rich Rod(at least that’ll get him in a quiet place for a few years). Maybe he can revive that offense he had a West Virginia some years ago ? *that would be pre-Michigan and pre-Arizona times.