Big Cat Country
A look at Jacksonville’s new offensive coordinator
It’s been an offseason of change for the Jacksonville Jaguars. With Shad Khan still looking for the right general manager to lead the franchise’s front office operations, new head coach Liam Coen has finished fleshing out his coaching staff - with two first-time NFL coordinators taking the reins of the offense and defense. In the first of two deep dives into Coen’s most important colleagues, we ask the question; who is new OC Grant Udinski:?
Born in January 1996 in Doylestown, PA, Grant Udinski gravitated to football from an early age. Attending Central Bucks High School West, Udinski played tight end - being named an all-conference player for the Bucks as a senior. In 2015, he began a low-key college career, first with Davidson in North Carolina. But after just one reception in his freshman year, Udinski would both transfer and change position, playing defensive end for Towson. In two seasons with the Tigers, Udinski would make 43 tackles and 4.5 sacks - modest numbers that would offer him no opportunity to further his playing career as a professional.
It was in the classroom where Udinski would demonstrate the mental acumen that would help him forge an impressive and speedy ascension through the coaching ranks, being named a CoSIDA Academic First-Team All-American and registering a 3.94 GPA at Towson. He would somehow improve that whilst studying for a master’s degree, earning a perfect GPA of 4.0.
Grant Udinski would begin his coaching career at Baylor in 2019, earning a grad assistant job under head coach Matt Rhule and defensive coordinator Phil Snow. It is widely reported that Udinski initially lived in his car when he first moved to Waco in order to pursue his coaching dream, until Snow found out and allowed Udinski to move in with him. That season, the Bears would go an impressive 11-3, making it to the Big 12 Championship Game.
Udisnki’s dedication and talent was obviously evident from the start; when Matt Rhule became head coach of the Carolina Panthers that offseason, he took the grad assistant with him as a coaching assistant. It was a tough two years for Rhule and his staff in Carolina, with the Panthers going 10-23 in that time frame. Rhule would only last five more games the following season, but by that point Udinski had already left, following tight ends coach Brian Angelichio to the Minnesota Vikings. Angelicho had been recruited by Kevin O’Connell as his new passing game coordinator, and encouraged his new boss to bring the young talented coach up North as well…
Udinski was named ‘assistant to the head coach/special projects’, a title that was vague for a reason - he would do anything and everything required. Much like in his previous stops in Waco and Charlotte, Udinski wasted no time making an impression, showing creativity and attention to detail in both practice and when providing advanced opponent scouting reports. O’Connell...
