I attended the Salt Lake Chapter Cougar Club Luncheon today with Coach Grimes.  I'm not sure if anyone else has posted on this already but the coach had interesting things to say that I was impressed with and will report on.

1.  This luncheon was billed as the recruiting luncheon.  They showed the one minute highlight clips of each recruit while we were eating.  In years past, the Q & A of the recruiting luncheon fields a lot of questions about each new recruit, who might make impacts and where, etc.  Coach Grimes dismissed all questions regarding the recruiting class with a statement (paraphrasing) "We won't know much of anything about any of these kids in the recruiting class this year for at least 2-3 years... 4-5 years if they serve missions... so I see no point in talking about what they might or might not do now."  He didn't mention a single name of a new recruit or player for the rest of the luncheon.  By the end, I was convinced he was right and found it refreshing not to speculate about specific recruits and what they "might" do.

2. He was asked about what his last 9 years in the SEC experience might bring to BYU football.  Said two interesting things... he said he learned a ton about recruiting and the level of recruiting they do in the SEC like nothing he had ever seen before; said that we should be competitive with top LDS athletes and and that we should be better at recruiting them in the same way that Coach Saban has an advantage recruiting a kid from Birmingham to Alabama.  He also said that in the SEC he went against some of the best defensive coaches and athletes in the entire country... gave him experience that he will use now at BYU.

3. He talked about each of the new offensive coaches and why they are on the staff individually (alot of good stuff said here that I was impressed with how meticulous Coach Grimes is).  He said that as a unit that he believes it is the best offensive staff that BYU has ever had.  Acknowleged the great offensive minds of the past and the tall order of going after them but reiterated with confidence that the guys he has assembled are exactly who he wanted.

4. He talked about reasons he came back to BYU.  Talked about his background being from Texas and high school football there.  Mentioned the high school programs that are based out of small towns, only send one or two kids to D1 programs each year, but yet play for championships and win games year after year for decades.  He said its the kids in the programs that come from hard working families in the small town, their character, etc... drew a parallel with the kinds of players that are attracted to and come to play at BYU.  Said that he made a list of 30 attributes with some other coaches of the ideal traits of a good football player... size, speed, athleticism were obvious but many of the other traits, hard work, character, integrity, teachability, team first etc.  He realized that the kids at BYU had the majority of the attributes on the list of 30.  

5. He also talked alot about mindset, confidence, etc.  Said that the morale on the team has improved leaps and bounds in the last couple of months.  He has formed an offensive leadership group with 5 players (who he wouldn't mention their names) and is so impressed with them and their desire to turn the offense around.

Overall, I really liked the luncheon and came away impressed with Coach Grimes.  He struck me as a leader and teacher.  I'm excited about the new direction.