Eddie Gran leaves Tennessee for same position at Florida State
by Joel Hollingsworth on Dec 6, 2009 3:00 PM EST
in Tennessee Volunteer Football
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PrintVolQuest is reporting that Tennessee running backs coach Eddie Gran has decided to resign from Tennessee in favor of coaching running backs at Florida State.
This is mostly bad news for Tennessee. Gran, one of my personal favorites on the Chimera ever since reading this story about him and his family (link fixed -- thanks to Tomahawk Nation for the diplomatic correction), has contributed greatly to Tennessee's success in a single short year. He was largely responsible for the resurrection of the Volunteer rushing game, and his fingerprints were all over last year's recruiting class as well as the one developing for this year.
What's especially odd is Gran's decision to make a lateral move to Florida State, a move that will cost him between $50,000 to $100,000 over the next two years for breaching his contract. It's not so much the money, it's the simple fact of taking essentially the same job at a school that is an even bigger rebuilding project than Tennessee and a year behind to boot. The nagging question for me, in light of the kind of guy he is, is this: what doesn't he like about Tennessee?
Tennessee's ability to recruit Florida obviously takes a major hit. According to Rivals, Gran was the primary recruiter on four of last year's blue chips, and was a factor in landing Bryce Brown. One of this year's most important recruits -- kicker Michael Palardy -- has also said that Gran was a big part of his decision to commit to Tennessee, and while he said he's still solid to Tennessee, one must wonder what happens when a "big part" of your decision suddenly changes.
If there's any silver lining to this, it's that Gran is taking his talents to Tallahassee and not somewhere else in the SEC. Having Florida State seriously compete with both the Gators and the Hurricanes for Florida talent and for dominance in the state means a degree of dilution for our main rival in the SEC East. So go 'Noles, I guess.
In any event, best of luck to Gran. We hardly knew you, but it was nice while it lasted.
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The only thing I can think of...
is that he’ll be able to spend more time at home since he’ll primarily be recruiting in the state of Florida.
"I can't hear you, Rocky Top is playing."
I think this for sure
Gran is a family guy, and this helps that situation. May not have been any more complicated than that.
Interesting
Brent Hubbs adds to the VolQuest report that Gran never signed his contract, thus no breach, thus no penalty. Perhaps this was never a longterm relationship, from day one.
Well there is no doubt that it will be easier to obtain success in the ACC
SEC defense or ACC defense?
Go Noles!
It was nice to read the flattering comments about Gran. Sorry to steal him from you all. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Noles stole some other SEC talents for the many defensive coaching positions we have coming open, but I don’t think we’ll be taking any more from TN.
I like the idea of the silver lining of stealing talent away from the GayTurds, and that is a real possibility esp. on the D since Strong is leaving for Louisville and top prospects have been committing to FSU daily since Bowden left. Several more 4* & 5* will be committing to FSU over the next couple of weeks, most are on the D side of the ball.
In three short years, Jimbo turned FSU’s offense from the ACC’s worst to the best, and one of the top 10 offenses in the country. The rebuilding “project” at FSU is not as far away as you might think. Although our D was one of the worst in the country this year, it was full of 4* & 5* talent that was out of position. Mickey Andrews was also saddled by a bunch of Bowden’s cronies who could not coach. For example, Jody Allen, our defensive ends coach never coached defense a day in his life before Bobby hired him for the job. He was always a wide receivers coach. Our front 7 was tiny because somehow someone got the idea that we should move safeties into the lb position, move lbs to play DE and move DEs to play DT. Size matters. With a little size on the line and ome decent coaching, the FSU D will look like the animals of the 90’s w/i 2 yrs. We’ve also been hitting JUCO guys who will come in and make an immediate impact.
If our D had been ranked 60th or better this year, then we would’ve lost 1 game this season—to the Turds. But that is only because we had to start a RS freshman due to an injury. Next year our entire offense is back minus 1 WR and a TE who was injured in the middle of this season.
Unlike the Turds, the Noles to not fill their out of conference schedules with HS teams. Next year we are at Oklahoma and play BYU and FU (the Turds) in our out of conference games.
Funny, that.
Our front 7 was tiny because somehow someone got the idea that we should move safeties into the lb position, move lbs to play DE and move DEs to play DT.
That’s exactly what made Monte Kiffin famous in the NFL.
Agreed, Hooper
Rebuttals from the Altanta Chop nation that drifted south should be stronger….
I don't mean it to refute, per se.
But downsizing can work very well when done right. Just like upsizing can (as Minnesota has done in that same NFL). For what little I know of the situation, I would agree with more of the coaching problems than personnel problems in FSU.
And IIRC, the ’90s Noles were built on speed over size as well.
Agreed on most of that
Last year, however, we weighed in at 1735lbs in the front-7, which is just too small. Need to be about 1830.
I'm not familiar with your particulars
(I skimmed that post about weight a while back), so I’ll defer to you. But that sounds more like coaches still, and not know how far to carry a concept.
by David Hooper on Dec 6, 2009 11:56 PM EST up reply actions
It doesn't work when you have guys change positions and attempt to coach your new DEs with a wide receivers coach and your lb coach tells the guys to just free lance and make plays.
guys get all out of position and manhandled.
I actually like the vols as my brother lives in Merriville. Wish you all would’ve beat the Turds. Maybe Gran will be able to help Elam decommit from FU and come to the Garnet & Gold. That would be a big pickup for us. I don’t know how likely it is, but Strong leaving also helps.
That I agree with.
I think it’s more a coaching personnel problem. With poor coaching, it really doesn’t matter who you have.
This isn't at all related to the topic of Gran
But the AJC has just reported that an official from the Independence Bowl, who was OK with his name being attached, said that Georgia will play Texas A&M in the Independence Bowl.
So I would say that we can stop worrying and are in the Peach Bowl. It’s still possible we could get Clemson and not Virginia Tech, I suppose, but we’re in regardless. And without Georgia, the draw of Clemson over Virginia Tech seems to disappear, so I would be kind of shocked if we didn’t get our matchup, too.
Yes, because the Peach has the ifrst post-BCS ACC selection.
But they’re not locked into the ACCCG loser by any means.
Well this sucks
I hope we can keep our commits. And find someone to coach RBs. Gran was great.
by Incipient_Senescence on Dec 6, 2009 5:28 PM EST reply actions
I don't think any of Gran's recruits would leave for FSU
Dustin Hopkins has our kicking job locked up for the next three years. He was rated No. 1 coming out of HS and is only a sophmore next year. FSU’s recruiting class will be full of Lbs, DBs, and we are already good at WR with a couple of top guys in this class to add to it. As far as OL go, we let our line coach, Rick Trickett pick his own men.
FSU was in need of a RB coach as our OL coach took over the RB coaching duties in mid season. I don’t see Gran leaving as a knock on the UT program or Kifflin. Our offense is already one of the best the ACC has seen in decades. With Clemson losing Spiller & Ford and FSU returning virtually everyone on both sides of the ball, we should be in the ACCCG next season. A NC is always difficult to achieve, but it is easier when you do not have to go through Meyer AND Saban. He’ll also be closer to home.
FSU fans expected a new RB coach to replace Dexter Carter, but Gran was totally unexpected this. I do hope you find someone comparable to Gran to fill the spot, but I hope they are shitty at recruiting Fla.
Wait till you see how we fill our defensive coaching positions. There is a lot of energy in Tally right now. Record numbers of boosters signing up. Boosters saying $ will not get in the way of hiring the best DC available. Couple million freed up by Bowden’s departure. Don’t get me wrong, we respect BB for what he’s done. But in the last decade (which Noles fans refer to as the “lost decade”) he filled the asst. coaching jobs with his friends and family who were not getting the job done. I’m going back to Tomahawk nation now.
The info on Hopkins makes me feel much better about Palardy
So thanks for that…and having just moved past our own longterm championship head coach, once the hard part is over, I think you’ll continue to find the breath of fresh air very enjoyable. Gran is a winner – nothing but the best to him at FSU.
I am a huge Palardy fan
but doesn’t it stink that the Vols (with our illustrious history as a kicking game school) have to long for a recruit that can actually KO and punt? Another reminder of how much the talent level had dropped under Phil…
OK, Please let me panic-It's what I do.
ATTENTION VOL NATION: Coaching Carousel-Act I, Scene I
This is definitely trouble-to what degree we don’t know….yet. Remember why many of you wanted Fulmer and Co. out? Why? C’mon say it with me. That’s right, “r-e-c-r-u-i-t-i-n-g.” This guy is a master. Look at his resume and this year’s results. He was at the heart of it all with the running game and the recruiting. Now, to speculate. From Al Davis’s allegations to the Nu’keese Richardson incident. I believe that some events have occurred on The Hill related to Kiffin’s actions that have made Eddie Gran uncomfortable and he opted out gracefully. I don’t know this for sure, but look at the facts. Something is definitely wrong. I could see the Wilson situation. With this together, I am now not sure. I have a feeling there are dark days ahead for the Vol Nation.
by Rocky Top on Dec 7, 2009 4:14 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
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