I haven't been this excited to be reaching the end of the 90s since we all thought Y2K was going to make the earth explode (well, some of us did)...but here we are...just one more tomorrow and we're officially into the 80s (my Member's Only jacket is coming out of storage). The countdown marches on and our date with Georgia on September 3rd inches closer. Let's do this thing.
We've got 91 days until kickoff...so today we'll be taking a look at number 91 on the Bronco roster—Greg Grimes
#91, Greg Grimes, Junior, DT
Stats
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 288 lbs.
High School: Inderkum High School, Sacramento, CA
How'd he get to The Blue™?
By breaking the Aggies' hearts. Grimes was a highly-decorated player at Sacramento's Inderkum High, where he received first team All-CIF and conference player of the year honors and was also named first team all-conference on three separate occasions. In Grimes senior year alone, he accounted for 94 of the team's tackles and five quarterback sacks. Naturally, the stout DT was drawing lots of interest from schools all over the region, but his size seemed to be a factor that caused some schools to withhold a scholly or offer him a mere walk-on nod. In the end, only Utah State, San Diego State and Boise State extended solid scholarship offers and the choice was easy—he chose Utah State...wait, what? Whether as a joke or because the Broncos scholarship offer came a little late, Grimes actually originally gave the Aggies his verbal, but had a long weekend to think things over and switched the Broncos on 2008's LOI day.
Nickname
Grimey [grahy-mee]
Hey...worked for this guy.
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Look-alike
Mr. Sandman from Mike Tyson's Punchout!
Career Highlights
Not many so far. Recorded 3 tackles and half a sack in a highly truncated 2009.
Career Lowlight
Missing 10 games in 2009 with a leg injury.
2011 Prospectus
This one's a toughie. Grimes is set to start his junior season with the Broncos and he has all of 4 career tackles to show for it. I know that the 2009 injury was pretty substantial and it took Grimes quite a while to right the ship, but last season he was pretty well out of the rotation and that was with the Atkinson suspension. The big question this year will be whether Grimes can take advantage of another hole on the interior D-line—one caused by the dismissal of J.P. Nisby, who got a fair amount of PT in 2010 opposite Ricky Tjong-A-Tjoe and had developed into a solid backup. Ostensibly, Grimes should be in direct competition with either Tjong-A-Tjoe or Atkinson for a role in 2011, and as we've discussed previously, Atkinson may hold the spot more ripe for the picking, if only because of his struggles with injury and the long arm of the law. Since we're nearing the end of the D-line profiles, it's worth repeating that I still think the two-deep at DT will look like this: Billy Winn (1A), Chase Baker (1B), Michael Atkinson (2A), Ricky Tjong-A-Tjoe (2B). Now...this isn't to say there isn't room for Grimey, Jungblut, Koontz, Cushing, or even true frosh Ash or Worthy if any of those players can make Paul Bunyan-sized strides in Fall Camp. The best players will play, period...but right now Grimes falls outside of the generally accepted top 4, which means—barring injury—that he's probably relegated to garbage time for one more season until the really big D-line turnover occurs next year. That said, I wish him the best. His recruiting tapes were impressive and he's up to 288, so he definitely represents another big body in the middle. Safe to say that whatever happens this year, we'll still have depth to spare, and a wealth of experience in 2012.
Completely made up fact
When Grimes left Baskin Robbins, they had to change the marquee to read "10 and a quarter flavors"