ETF Summary

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — South Dakota State never bought into all the hype as defending FCS national champions. With standout quarterback Mark Gronowski and a stifling defense, the Jackrabbits just went out and won another title.

“That first one was … really, really sweet, just because it was that first one,’ said Gronowski, who started his third Football Championship Subdivision title game. “We got to see the other team do it three years ago and be up on that stage where we weren’t, so I think that’s part of the thing that makes this whole thing so much sweeter.”

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Gronowski ran for a touchdown and threw for another after halftime as SDSU repeated as champions with a 23-3 win over Montana on Sunday. The Jackrabbits have won 29 games in a row, including over North Dakota State last year for their first national title.

“With as much hype surrounding this football program, we never paid much attention to it. We stayed consistent. We worked extremely hard week in and week out, and this is the result,” said Jimmy Rogers, the first-year head coach with a 15-0 record after being South Dakota State’s defensive coordinator last season.

SDSU linebacker Adam Boch stuffed running back Eli Gillman for no gain on fourth-and-goal from the 1 on Montana’s opening drive. SDSU allowed only 273 total yards, had five sacks and wrapped up a four-game playoff run in which it allowed only 15 points and had two shutouts.

“Best defense in FCS history,” Rogers said. “I’m proud of that, proud of this football team, proud to go back-to-back.’

South Dakota State had an impressive game-opening drive, but led only 7-3 at halftime. Gronowski then bulled into the end zone for a 10-yard score midway through the third quarter, and on the next possession threw a 23-yard TD to Jadon Janke.

Gronowski was 13-of-21 passing for 175 yards and ran eight times for 62 yards to join Carson Wentz and Brock Jensen, quarterbacks who won multiple championships with North Dakota State, as the only players selected as most outstanding player in consecutive FCS title games. Gronowski was a true freshman when he tore his left ACL on the opening series of the unusual May 2021 title game the Jackrabbits lost at the end of a pandemic-affected season.

“They have a heck of a leader back there. And he makes them go for sure,” Montana linebacker Braxton Hill said.

Montana’s 27 playoff appearances are the most in the second tier of Division I football. National champions in 1995 and 2001, the Grizzlies (13-2) have now finished as the runner-up six times, four under coach Bobby Hauck.

This was the Grizzlies’ first title game since 2009, when they were runner-ups for the third time in Hauck’s first seven seasons. Hauck then left for FBS team UNLV and also was on staff at San Diego State before returning to Montana in 2018.

Less than two weeks after South Dakota State was crowned champions last year, John Stiegelmeier retired after 26 seasons as head coach. He was succeeded by Rogers, a former Jackrabbits linebacker who was captain of their first playoff team in 2009 — when they lost to Montana after blowing a 27-point lead.

Both teams had only one possession in the first quarter Sunday. Montana’s opening drive spilled into the first play of the second quarter, when Boch had the big fourth-down stop.

South Dakota State had opened the game with a 75-play, 11-play drive. Gronowski completed his first five passes for 55 yards and converted a third-and-4 with a 9-yard keeper right before Isaiah Davis’ 6-yard TD run.

“The fourth down stop was a big play in the game,” Hauck said. “They’re just a big, physical senior-oriented team and they do a nice job.”

THE TAKEAWAY

Montana: Playmaking quarterback Clifton McDowell, who had been 11-0 as the Griz starter, was under increased pressure, especially after halftime. He completed 22 of 39 passes for 165 yards, but was sacked four times. After he was stripped of the ball when being sacked late in the third quarter, 295-yard defensive tackle Ryan Van Marel came up with the ball.

South Dakota State: The Jackrabbits became the first team since North Dakota State (2017-19) to repeat as champions.

UP NEXT

Montana: The Big Sky champion Grizzlies take on one of SDSU’s Missouri Valley Conference rivals in their 2024 opener. They host Missouri State on Aug. 31.

South Dakota State: The Jackrabbits open next season on the road Aug. 31 at Big 12 team Oklahoma State, the first major conference team they will play since a 7-3 loss at Iowa of the Big Ten in the 2022 opener that was their last loss.

The Atlanta Falcons fired coach Arthur Smith just after midnight on Monday, just hours after the team was routed in the finale of its third consecutive losing season in as many years under Smith’s watch.

Atlanta entered Sunday with a very narrow path to claim the NFC South title, but it was shut out of the postseason for the third year under Smith when it was dealt a 48-17 loss by the rival New Orleans Saints.

“Decisions like this are never easy and they never feel good,” Falcons owner Arthur Blank said in a statement. “We have profound respect for Coach Smith and appreciate all the hard work and dedication he has put into the Falcons over the last three years. He has been part of building a good culture in our football team, but the results on the field have not met our expectations. After significant thought and reflection, we have determined the best way forward for our team is new leadership in the head coaching position.”

Smith finishes his tenure with a career mark of 21-30.

Blank said that he and Falcons CEO Rich McKay would lead the search, with general manager Terry Fontenot also providing input.

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On Dec. 20, Blank said he was ‘committed’ to Smith but wanted to see how the end of the season played out. The Falcons went on to lose two of their final three games after that point, with the team not having claimed a winning season since 2017.

Blank did not issue a playoff mandate before the season, but he said in August, “I expect us to win more games than we’ve won the last couple of years.’

Quarterback play proved to be a particular problem for Smith throughout his run. After the Falcons’ failed pursuit of Deshaun Watson in March 2022, the organization dealt mainstay Matt Ryan to the Indianapolis Colts and signed Marcus Mariota as his replacement. Mariota was benched that December for rookie Desmond Ridder.

Rather than pursue a veteran quarterback or another passer in the draft, the Falcons opted to stick by Ridder heading into the season. Smith attributed criticism of Ridder in October to ‘toxic groupthink,’ but he would later go on to bench his starter twice in favor of Taylor Heinicke. Ridder started Sunday’s finale against the Saints with Heinicke ruled out by an ankle injury.

Smith was also scrutinized for his use of the Falcons’ skill-position players after the team invested top-10 picks in tight end Kyle Pitts, wide receiver Drake London and running back Bijan Robinson. Pitts had just four more catches on the season (51) than fellow tight end Jonnu Smith, while Robinson, who was widely expected to be the centerpiece of the offense, had just 23 more carries than Tyler Allgeier.

The Falcons finished the year just 26th in scoring at 18.9 points per game.

Smith is the fourth NFL coach to be fired this season, following the Las Vegas Raiders’ Josh McDaniels, Carolina Panthers’ Frank Reich and Los Angeles Chargers’ Brandon Staley.

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The long-suffering Hoosiers have three winning seasons since 1995, with two coming with Penix taking the majority of starting snaps: Indiana won eight games in 2019 and six more during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, the latter the program’s most successful year by final ranking since 1967.

But it’s since leaving Bloomington for Washington that Penix has entered a new stratosphere, etching his place among the most successful quarterbacks of the decade with two seasons that stack up against the best in Pac-12 history.

‘He’s different,’ said Washington running back Dillon Johnson.

He’s ‘the reason we’re in the spot that we’re in,’ said offensive lineman Julius Buelow.

‘He’s that guy,’ wide receiver Rome Odunze said.

Penix is special: In his production, in his unorthodox throwing motion, in his place in this record-setting offense and most of all in the way he’s overcome injury, the Huskies’ senior quarterback has built a name for himself that will outlast Monday night, when Washington meets Michigan in the College Football Playoff national championship game.

‘He’s got the ‘it’ factor,’ Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said. ‘He’s just got it.’ 

Overcoming injuries and adversity

No potential championship-winning quarterback in memory has needed to fight through more on-field challenges.

‘He’s been through so much different adversity,’ Odunze said. ‘I always say, he was at the bottom, he was at the top, he was at the bottom again and here he is at the top, shining in the biggest moments.’

One season-ending injury is disappointing; two is heartbreaking. Incredibly, Penix had to overcome four in as many years with the Hoosiers, the final two coming just as his college career seemed to be taking flight.

Penix tore his ACL three games into his true freshman season in 2018, with the injury coming as he was splitting time with starter Peyton Ramsey in a close loss to Penn State.

He injured his non-throwing shoulder nine games into the 2019 season, with Indiana sitting at 7-2, matching the Hoosiers’ highest win total since 2007. At the time, Penix was completing 68.8% of his throws on 8.7 yards per attempt.

He put himself on the map during the COVID-19 season, tossing 14 touchdowns through five games before suffering another ACL tear in a win against Maryland. Penix led the Hoosiers to a season-opening win against the Nittany Lions − his dive into the end zone for the game-winning two-point conversion was one of the highlight-reel plays of the year − finished with 342 yards and three touchdowns in a win against Michigan and went for 491 yards and five scores in a shootout loss to Ohio State.

And he suffered another shoulder injury five games into the 2021 season, which saw Penix and Indiana struggle through a winless finish in Big Ten play.

‘Yeah, man, those times were tough, but it just showed that I can get through anything. I can persevere and push through any hardship that comes my way,’ said Penix.

‘But I’m just super blessed to be in this position now. I wouldn’t change anything I’ve been through for anything. I feel like it’s shaped me into the player and the person that I am today.’

Since reuniting with former Indiana offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer at Washington, Penix has not only remained healthy but rewrote the program’s record book. After leading the FBS in passing yards with 4,641 last season, he enters Monday night with 4,648 yards and 35 touchdowns while completing 66.7% of his attempts.

‘My whole path, I wouldn’t change it for anything,’ Penix said.

An unorthodox throwing motion

Just being a southpaw alone makes Penix unique. Only three lefthanded quarterbacks have won the national championship in the past four decades: Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, Florida’s Tim Tebow and Southern California’s Matt Leinart.

As a prospect, Penix has come under scrutiny for a sidearm throwing motion without many analogs in recent NFL memory, especially from the left side.

But this unorthodox motion also feeds into a release that allows Penix to sling darts that can often surprise defensive backs. Several of his throws in the Sugar Bowl win against Texas zipped right over shoulders and helmets, leading to a series of eye-opening completions in one of the top big-game performances by a quarterback during the playoff era.

‘The ability to throw the ball with accuracy, he can get rid of it super quick,’ DeBoer said. ‘All those pieces from a skill set standpoint and talent-wise are there.’

No, the delivery isn’t textbook. But the results speak for themselves: Penix threw for a combined 621 yards on 8.2 yards per attempt in wins against Oregon, 430 yards against the Longhorns and has multiple touchdowns in all but three games.

The perfect fit in an almost perfect offense

Penix has been the perfect fit in a near-perfect offense with no discernable flaws or weak links entering Monday night.

The Huskies’ offensive line won the Joe Moore Award as the top unit in the FBS. Despite that fact, the group was largely seen as a question mark going up against the Longhorns’ defensive front, widely viewed as the nation’s best. Washington allowed no sacks and just one tackle for loss in the win.

‘I’ve always felt that if your offensive line has got that physical presence to them, your whole team probably has that physical presence as well,’ said DeBoer, ‘because that’s what they’re going against each and every day in practice.’

Washington’s running game heads into the matchup with Michigan ranked 127th nationally in carries per game but tied for 26th in the FBS in rushing touchdowns with 28. The Huskies have been particularly effective when closing wins, averaging 4.5 yards per carry when ahead by a single possession and 4.8 yards per carry when leading by two or more scores.

And the receiver corps is college football’s best. Against Texas, Penix made 20 attempts to his four top receivers − Odunze, Ja’Lynn Polk, Jalen McMillan and Germie Bernard − and completed 19, with the foursome combining for 353 yards and two scores.

But Penix is at the center of all Washington does on offense. His rapport with DeBoer is obvious; so is his ability to run the entire gamut of DeBoer’s pass-heavy playbook.

The result has been a dream season for Washington, and a fitting way to conclude one of the most unique careers by a quarterback in the playoff era.

‘Man, it’s a dream come true,’ Penix said. ‘To be honest, I’m still wrapping my head around it. Just super blessed to be in this position. This is something you dream of as kids, coming to play for the national championship. For us to be here right now, all the hard work and dedication that it took to get here, it’s definitely shown and it’s paid off. But obviously we’ve got to make it happen.’

Kalen DeBoer was a high school football player in Milbank, South Dakota when he received his first recruiting letter. It has accompanied him on each of his seven coaching stops, including to Seattle about two years ago when he took over as head coach at the University of Washington.

‘This letter sits behind my desk in a drawer usually that I check often and just think about why I do what I do,’ DeBoer, 49, said earlier this year.

On Monday, he will lead the Washington Huskies against Michigan Wolverines in the national championship game – not unlike the author of the recruiting letter once led DeBoer.

The man was Bob Young, former football coach at the University of Sioux Falls, a Baptist-affiliated school in eastern South Dakota then competing in NAIA.  It’s where DeBoer became an All-America wide receiver, a fast-rising coach and a protégé of Young, who shared his love for football, his deep spiritual faith and, as reflected in the handwritten recruiting letter, attention to detail.

‘It’s just perfectly handwritten,’ DeBoer said. ‘There’s no blemishes.’

DeBoer’s remarks about the letter were part of his taped comments played in June at a Celebration of Life for Young, who died almost a year ago. After Washington beat Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game last month, he received a congratulatory text from Young’s son, Steve.

Replied DeBoer, ‘We learned from the best.’

Difficult times for DeBoer’s family

In her mind’s eye, DeBoer’s mother said, she sees little Kalen mowing the vacant farmland near where they lived. He did it so there was a place to play football with his two younger siblings and cousins.

It’s a warm memory from a difficult time, said Phylis Waterfall.

She said became a single mother in 1982, about the same time Kalen turned 9, and moved her three children into a rental house on the vacant farm.

Life was tough, recalled Waterfall, who said she worked at a drugstore and got help from fellow churchgoers. God protected them, she said, but added that she leaned on Kalen, too.

‘He was my rock,’ she said.

They lived on their own until Waterfall remarried about seven years later, she said

‘It probably forced me to grow up a little bit quicker,’ DeBoer told The Associated Press.

In an email to USA TODAY Sports, DeBoer wrote, ‘My dad and I stayed in touch. Just don’t want it to come across in a negative way toward him.’

After Bob Young died, DeBoer sent Young’s son Steve a text message. In part, it reads, ‘Your dad is the most influential male in my life. I wouldn’t be who I am or where I am without him.’

Humility and filling gopher holes

At Sioux Falls, Young was more than a football coach.

He also taught three math classes, washed the football team’s jerseys and occasionally drove the team bus. He also compiled a record 172-89-3 at the school.

In 1996, DeBoer was a key player on the school’s first national championship team. But he showed he’d learned more than winning.

For example, after DeBoer joined Young’s coaching staff as offensive coordinator in 2000, DeBoer more than once carried buckets of dirt and filled in gopher holes on the practice fields, said Ken ‘SID’ Kortmeyer, then a senior athletic official at Sioux Falls.

‘It was just that humble ability to help when help is needed,’ Kortmeyer said.

Young’s handpicked successor, DeBoer took over as head coach in 2005. The season ended with a 55-0 loss to Carroll College in the NAIA national semifinals.

‘There’ve been times where I’ve really dreaded doing a postgame interview with a coach after a blowout or a tight one,’ said Tom Frederick, the longtime play-by-play announcer at Sioux Falls. ‘He couldn’t have made it any easier. He wasn’t down. He wasn’t mad.’

DeBoer went out and found more talent, and Sioux Falls won three of the next four NAIA championships.

Nudged by Willie Sanchez, then athletic director at Sioux Falls, DeBoer  left South Dakota and began his climb up the Division I coaching ranks.

‘Coach Young nailed it’

Oct. 15, 2021. Laramie, Wyoming.

DeBoer was a head coach again, and in his second year in charge of the program at Fresno State, and with his players at the team hotel.

Fresno State was coming off a 27-24 loss at Hawaii as it prepared for its game the next day against Wyoming. Young, then 81, made the 9½-hour drive from Sioux Falls to be with DeBoer.

At DeBoer’s request, Young led team’s chapel service Friday night.

‘Coach Young nailed it,’ DeBoer said in taped remarks played at the Celebration of Life in Bob Young Stadium in Sioux Falls. ‘He had talked about the peaks and the valleys and how to get through it and how to stay the course and keep the faith.’

Then came the peaks. And more peaks.

Fresno State beat Wyoming, 17-0, won six of its last seven games and finished the season 10-3.

DeBoer got hired by Washington in November of 2021.

Last season, DeBoer inherited a team that went 4-8 and led them to an 11-2 record.

Connecting with his players like the father-figure he found in Bob Young, the magical ride continued.

What real love looks like

Four of Washington’s victories have come by four or fewer points. DeBoer continues to operate with the composure of his mentor, but that’s not ice water in his veins.

On Nov. 4, after Washington beat Southern California 52-42, Washington linebacker Zion Tupuola-Fetui broke down in DeBoer’s arms after the DeBoer told him, “The team loves you.’’

Tupuola-Fetui, a senior, was playing a week after his father died.

Michael Penix Sr. the father of Washington’s star quarterback, said there’s something unique about this football team.

‘You hear coaches and players always say they love each other,’ he said. ‘But there ain’t too many of them really show it day by day. I think what Coach DeBoer is doing up there with that program is showing them real love.

‘It’s not the love that happens one day and three days off. It’s everyday love. That’s big for the players.’

At the Celebration of Life for Young, DeBoer talked about his final conversation with his old coach and mentor.

‘Of course I hardly got any questions in on him about how he was doing,’ DeBoer said in the taped remarks. ‘He was always about you, right? And asking how the team was and how my family was and how recruiting was going.

‘And, of course, that patented, that always final, ‘Love you, man’ at the end. And that’s the thing I’m going to remember forever, is the ‘Love you, man.”

The Washington Commanders fired head coach Ron Rivera on Monday following the team’s 4-13 season, Rivera’s fourth leading Washington.

Washington entered the 2023 campaign with heightened expectations but lost the final eight games of the season.

Rivera’s ouster followed new principal owner Josh Harris’ first season controlling the organization. The coach never posted a winning record in his four seasons in Washington, finishing 26-40-1 overall. The Commanders – the ‘Football Team’ at the time – won the NFC East in 2020, Rivera’s first season, with a 7-9 mark.

‘Ron helped navigate this organization through some challenging times,’ Harris said in a statement. ‘He is a good man and thoughtful leader who has positively contributed to this organization and the NFL.’

In a statement posted to the team’s Twitter account, Rivera thanked Harris as well as the team’s fans, players and coaching staff.

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‘As for Washington, it wasn’t easy and there is a lot more to be done, but I believe we began to change the culture of this organization in meaningful ways,’ Rivera said. ‘And on a personal note, it has been one of the greatest honors of my career to serve this franchise and those who cheer it on every week.’

With Rivera acknowledging before the season he needed a successful campaign to prove to ownership he deserved to stick around, his team started 2-0 this season managed two wins the rest of the way.

“I think really the thing for me more than anything else has just been we didn’t live up to the expectations that we had or that I had personally,’ Rivera told reporters last week. ‘I really felt there were some opportunities and some things that we missed, and that to me was probably the biggest disappointment more than anything else because I really felt we had the makings of enough good players in certain situations that we should have won a few more games.”

Harris said his ownership partners, including Mitchell Rales, Magic Johnson and David Blitzer – along with new executive hires Bob Myers (formerly of the Golden State Warriors) and Rick Spielman – will lead the search committee for a new head coach and a leader of the football operations department.

‘In my experience, championship infrastructure begins with a strong ownership group that prioritizes culture and invests in attracting the industry’s most talented and innovative leaders,’ Myers said in a statement. ‘In speaking with Josh and his team, it’s clear they will do everything it takes to build out a world-class organization – one that can win on the field and make a positive mark in the DMV community.’

Rivera was hired by former owner Dan Snyder as the organization – namely Snyder – became the target of multiple investigations regarding workplace culture and other malfeasances. Snyder, upon his sale of the team, had to pay a $60 million fine after a league probe substantiated claims that included sexual harassment, according to an investigator appointed by the league.

‘For about three-and-a-half years while I was here, I managed,’ Rivera said last week. ‘Probably the last five weeks, I’ve coached. Getting back and doing the defensive coordinator stuff was a thrill.’

Rivera, a defensive head coach, and defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio struggled to sort out a defense that was particularly vulnerable to giving up big plays in 2023. The Commanders finished the season last in scoring defense (30.5 points allowed per game) and yards surrendered (388.9). Washington allowed at least 27 points in each of their last eight games. At the Oct. 31 trade deadline, Washington dealt away both of its marquee defensive ends in Montez Sweat (to the Chicago Bears) and Chase Young (to the San Francisco 49ers). Rivera fired Del Rio and defensive backs coach Brent Vieselmeyer following a 45-10 Thanksgiving Day loss to the Cowboys.

A revolving door at quarterback throughout his time also proved troublesome for the coach. Alex Smith started in 2020 and was named Comeback Player of the Year, but the veteran’s calf injury paved the way for Taylor Heinicke, who started in the wild-card game against the eventual champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers that postseason. Heinicke took over again the next season when free agent Ryan Fitzpatrick was injured in the first half of the team’s opening contest. And the next free-agent addition, Carson Wentz, was benched for Heinicke in 2022.

Rivera, 62, had recently tried to tie his job security to the development of current quarterback Sam Howell, a 2022 fifth-round draft pick who showed promise (leading the league in completions and passing yards) and cause for concern (a league-high 21 interceptions and 65 sacks taken).

Rivera also faced personal hardship upon taking the Commanders job in 2020. He was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma that summer and would go to extraordinary lengths in order to attend practices and games.

‘I’d like to think we’re in a better place, probably a fair way to say it,’ Rivera said last week. ‘I most certainly do appreciate my time here.’

A nine-year NFL linebacker and member of the 1986 Bears Super Bowl team, Rivera entered coaching in 1997 with Chicago. He coached under Andy Reid with the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999-2003 and was defensive coordinator for the Bears (2004-2006) and the then-San Diego Chargers (2008-2010).

In 2011, the Carolina Panthers made Rivera head coach, and he became the third Latino in league history to hold the position. He was the 2013 and 2015 AP Coach of the Year, and the Panthers made it to the Super Bowl in Cam Newton’s 2015 MVP season. He was fired following Week 13 of the 2019 season, Carolina owner David Tepper’s second season in charge.

Editor’s note: For the latest updates and highlights from Michigan vs. Washington in the national championship game, follow USA TODAY Sports’ live coverage.

When Ryan Grubb decided at 29 to give up a career in agriculture and pursue football coaching full-time, he knew what he was signing up for: long hours, high-stress situations, limited vacation time and most likely, a salary that wouldn’t inspire jealousy. 

Grubb got his first full-time coaching job in 2007 at Sioux Falls, an NAIA school. There, Kalen DeBoer hired him to “coach the offensive line, run the strength and conditioning program, do the laundry and drive the bus,” Grubb joked to USA TODAY Sports, acknowledging that at schools with smaller budgets, everyone has to multitask.

“Every day it was, ‘I gotta go set up the gym for conditioning, Johnny needs his helmet fixed and someone needs their ankles taped.’ It was all part of the gig.” For these tasks, he was paid $2,700 per season.

So Grubb is as surprised as anyone that, now as the University of Washington’s 45-year-old offensive coordinator, he makes $2 million annually.

“It’s weird,” Grubb admitted. 

But such is life for the guy calling plays for the No. 2 team in the country, which is undefeated (13-0) and plays No. 1 Michigan on Monday night for the national title (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).

In fact, Grubb’s pay has become so lucrative over the last year, with two raises totaling nearly $1 million, that he boasts one of the biggest year-over-year increases any assistant has received since USA TODAY Sports started tracking assistant salaries in 2010. 

“I’m almost glad sometimes that I don’t have the time to sit and overanalyze it,” Grubb said. “But I have people who remind me. My brother-in-law is one of my best friends in the world, he’s 100 times smarter than me, an engineer who makes really good money. He loves sports but he’s a really rational person. He’ll say to me, ‘You’re making more money than doctors who save people’s lives, this is pathetic.’ ”

He’s fine with the ribbing, he said. It keeps him humble.

Sky-high salaries for head coaches have become commonplace in college sports, particularly with football, typically the biggest revenue-generator on campuses. When head coaches make eye-popping eight-figure salaries — some argue that at more than $11.4 million annually, seven-time national championship coach Nick Saban of Alabama is actually underpaid — no one so much as blinks. 

It’s also not uncommon for head coaches who have great seasons and are suddenly generating interest on the hiring market to get sizable raises from season to season: Think Lane Kiffin’s jump from $5 million to $7.2 million to $9 million over three years at Ole Miss, or Josh Heupel’s bump from $5 million to $9 million this offseason at Tennessee.

In the ever-evolving arms race throughout college football, assistants making north of $1 million is increasingly common as well, according to USA TODAY Sports’ annual survey of assistant coaches’ salaries. In 2018, 21 assistants, all at the Power Five level, made more than $1 million annually; in the 2023 season, that number has jumped to 66. Often, assistant coaches will get big paydays when jumping from one school to the next. Grubb, on the other hand, got his pay raise by staying with the same employer.

Grubb wasn’t the only assistant to get a significant increase either; after being interviewed by the Philadelphia Eagles, Georgia co-defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann went from $805,000 in 2022 to $1.9 million this season. (Georgia, where assistants typically only talk twice a season, did not make Schumann available to USA TODAY Sports.)

But Grubb’s rise up the coaching ranks and pay scale is unique. 

From farming to football

A former small-college running back and wide receiver, Grubb graduated from Buena Vista University, a D-III school in Storm Lake, Iowa, in 1999. He got a job as a hog farmer, a natural fit for someone who grew up working on farms in Kingsley, Iowa (population: 1,396). 

But he missed the camaraderie of football so desperately he started helping at his alma mater, Kingsley-Pierson High. He couldn’t get enough. 

“It was like ‘God, I love this, how do I do this all the time?’ I didn’t know anything, but I start just cold-calling schools,” Grubb recalled. “Then John Stiegelmeier at South Dakota State tells me, ‘The best thing you can do is go back to school and be a grad assistant. If you want to coach after that, you’ll have a path. And if not, you’ve got a lifetime career because you have your masters.’ So I get a GA job there and I’m losing money but it was amazing. That two years got me hook, line and sinker.”  

Sixteen years later, after two NAIA national championships at Sioux Falls and program rebuilds at Eastern Michigan and Fresno State — all with DeBoer — Grubb found himself in Seattle, touring the Huskies’ facilities. 

Before the trip, Grubb had come up with an annual salary he felt was in line with what other top Power Five assistants made: $1 million. Wife Stephanie thought he was nuts. When she met her husband, he was working at Eastern Michigan, where he made $85,000 coaching the offensive line. 

“You’re an idiot,” she told him before their trip to UW. “Now everybody is going to be attacking you. They’re gonna hate you if you mess up and make that much!” 

Grubb’s wise response: “Babe, they’re gonna hate me if I made a bad third-and-seven call whether I’m making $600,000 or $1 million.” 

DeBoer hired Grubb. Then the Huskies led the nation in both passing offense (369.8 yards per game) and third-down conversion rate (57%), finishing second in total offense (515.8). The season before, in 2021, UW ranked 73rd, 26th and 114th in those categories, respectively. Along the way, Michael Penix Jr. broke Washington’s single-season passing record (4,641 yards) and finished eighth in Heisman voting.

After winning season, Alabama, Texas A&M show interest

In the transfer portal era, college football’s offseason has become more crucial than ever, as coaches try to lure top playmakers to their programs, hungry for any advantage they can get in the quest for a national championship. But in an offseason full of acquisitions, Grubb had arguably the biggest score of all. 

It started Nov. 10, 2022, with Grubb inking a raise that took him from $1 million to $1.45 million; at the time UW was 7-2. Just five weeks later, after the Huskies finished 11-2 — a seven-game improvement from 2021 — Grubb got another substantial raise (from $1.45 million to $2 million) when Texas A&M expressed interest in hiring him for its offensive coordinator opening. He could also earn an additional $100,000 this season in bonuses. 

In late January, Grubb met with Saban in Alabama. Had Grubb taken the job, he might have had to take a pay cut, too: previous offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien made $1.1 million per season in two years in Tuscaloosa. 

No UW administrators involved in the negotiation of Grubb’s hefty pay increases were available to speak with USA TODAY Sports. In August, athletic director Jen Cohen left Washington for the same position at USC. Deputy athletic director Jay Hilbrands, who oversaw Husky football, went with her. Through a USC spokesperson, both Cohen and Hilbrands declined to comment.

Undoubtedly adding awkwardness to the whole situation is the fact that after Grubb and the UW offense torched Cohen’s new school for 572 yards in UW’s 52-42 win at USC on Nov. 5, Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley finally fired embattled defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. 

‘Being a coach, it’s a lifestyle’

There are positives, of course, to a big bump in pay. This offseason, Grubb took his wife, daughter and mother-in-law to Hawaii and stayed at the Disney resort, delighting 5-year-old Falynn. 

“Let me tell you, Walt Disney is the original gangster, that place was incredible,” Grubb said. “And I do think about, if I was a high school football coach, how would I do that? How are those (types of vacations) possible on a high school coaching salary?”

It’s true that if Grubb were an hourly employee, he wouldn’t make as much as most think. His job demands long days year-round, often pulling him away from his family. And when young coaches ask if they should get into the profession, he’s honest about the tradeoffs. 

“You have to have the right mindset and the right person to share this with. You can’t say you’re going to be the same dad and husband as the guy working 9-5 at Progressive insurance,” Grubb said. “Being a coach, it’s a lifestyle.” 

He’s sometimes embarrassed by his salary, especially because “I think of some guys that I consider to be really good coaches coaching at small college or high school, they’re not making near that.” He’s humbled by the fact that he has both wealth and the privilege of being able to dedicate his life to his passion. 

“It’s astounding, when we travel, the amount of money and people who are in the stadium helping us, who make sure we’re always ready to go,” Grubb said. “Because of that, the amount of time I have to allocate to my craft, to get better at my job, it’s just amazing.” 

Also, he promises that crazy paychecks aside, if you met him on the street you’d have no idea he’s a millionaire. 

“My wife is always pointing out that I’ve got holes in my Adidas shoes and wear too many worn-out sweatpants,” he said, laughing. “Really, not much has changed for me.” 

Follow Lindsay Schnell on social media @Lindsay_Schnell and Steve Berkowitz @ByBerkowitz