Mississippi State is hiring Louisville defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, according to a source. Grantham agreed to a multi-year deal to become the next defensive coordinator in Starkville.
Current Mississippi State defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon will not return to the Bulldogs next season, according to a source.
(Sirmon, by the way, is expected to swap jobs with Grantham at Louisville. That’s efficient, if nothing else.)
Why is Grantham leaving? Round up the usual suspects.
In 2016, Grantham earned $1.3 million with the Cardinals, making him the fifth-highest-paid assistant coach in the country according to USA Today‘s salary database. Suffice to say, Grantham will be looking at some kind of bump in pay for leaving for Dan Mullen‘s MSU coaching staff; how significant remains to be seen.
Kind of amazed Mullen is able to round up that kind of jack, but whatevs.
Mississippi State, you may or may not recall, comes calling to Athens in the 2017 season, which means that anyone who’s grown nostalgic for the days when his white towel roamed the sidelines in Sanford Stadium will have a new opportunity to get his or her jollies.
Should be a fun week leading up to the game.
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UPDATE:
https://twitter.com/Breondixon_4/status/819234919775924226
Hey, it’s not a lie if you believe it.
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UPDATE #2: I can see Greg McGarity reading this blog post about the hire and slowly shaking his head.
Get The Picture 
Reading the headline, I assumed this post was about Trooper Taylor.
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Ha! Me, too!
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Me too. LOL.
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Naw. Then it would have read “the Bagman Cometh.”
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I didn’t notice that a couple undesirable Louisville players (assholes) just got kicked off the team?
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Yeah- what 5* headcases is he going to bring with him to MSU?
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You have to give Grantham credit for the ability to milk big bucks out of programs that are grabbing at straws for defensive genius…UGA, Louisville and now StarkVegas.
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He’s the defensive equivalent of Charlie Weiss.
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Not sure I would go that far because he’s not be paid to leave.
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Maybe in a professional sense. CTG isn’t the best DC in the country, but he’s infinitely more competent than Charlie Weiss.
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CTG is no Jeremy Pruitt and perhaps he’s not the greatest recruiter, but I think he’s a pretty good ball coach. That first half performance against LSU in the SECCG was pretty special. We did pretty good the next year too inasmuch as we kept the score manageable.
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He’s decent, but he’s better at figuring out how to get paid than coaching defenses, IMO.
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Update #2 is another example of why ADs should have a background in coaching and not just some bean counting business guy. Athletics is a competitive environment with the scoreboard being the bottom line, not the bank ledger. Tanner at SC is another example. He wanted the hurricane game played at home for the team and didn’t panic and acquiesce to the politicians.
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I too, would have grown tired of working for Petrino.
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Curious if Louisville fans were as over him as UGAfams were when he left Athens? He was staring a down Year in the face here, and knew it was going to be ugly.
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I have several friends from there who really wanted him gone.
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that’s what I figured..
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So, will Kirby RUTS his ass like Richt did? Getting the better of him and rubbing his nose in it twice would be pretty sweet.
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One of my top 5 Richt moments.
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That last Chubb TD was sweet … no one wanted to tackle him. I always thought that was as much as for Petrino as it was for Grantham, but yes, definitely an Evil Richt moment
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Weird!
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How the fuck is this possible. He clearly is thought of more highly by coaches than by fans, but I honestly can’t understand what people see in this guy.
All hat, no cattle.
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That should tell you more about fans than it does about coaches.
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ADs keep bidding up the salary for Grantham.
Meanwhile, the people in charge are trying to shorten the game without eliminating the commercials, because we need the money.
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Allow me to play Anonymous Internet Insider for just a moment. I know a rather high level booster at Louisville (that I trust a lot) who has told me that Grantham and Petrino haven’t been on speaking terms for over a year.
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It’s not like we weren’t warned about that.
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I can’t fault Grantham for that one.
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It figures….yellers and drama kings are abundant in sports.
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No words were spoken.
Only a choke sign as he walked out the door.
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Mullen must think his offense can carry his defense next year. That Grantham learning curve is a bitch.
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Used to think Mullen would eventually make a good coach and jump to a decent school, but he just torpedoed that for a while.yv
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Has anyone ever moved up from Mississippi State?
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Yeah, three guys named Darrell Royal, Murray Warmath and Bernie Bierman. All three won AP national championships at other schools.
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Check that. In the last 61 years, has anybody moved up from Mississippi State? After I thought it I actually checked before I posted and only went back to the late 1960’s. I thought that was enough. Should have gone back to 1955 I guess.
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Where do I fax my resume to be the towel boy?
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Just send CTG your measurements – arm length & wing span. And if you have your own towel, it helps.
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Or Towel Girl…
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We’ll always have this.
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