Guys - Tell me about Eddie Gran

From the KY website and other sources...

30-year collegiate coaching veteran, Eddie Gran enters his third season at Kentucky as the assistant head coach of the offense/offensive coordinator as well as running backs coach and team spirit leader.

In his first season, Gran's running backs combined for more than 3,000 rushing yards, with Stanley "Sugarlips" Williams and Benny “Wazzat” Snell Jr. becoming the first two players in school history to rush for 1,000 yards in the same season. Snell earned Freshman All-America and was twice named SEC Scout Teamer of the Week. Williams, who averaged an impressive 6.8 yards per carry in 2016, continues to negotiate with the Cincinnati Bengals as an undrafted free agent.

Under Gran's leadership, UK had more than 2,000 rushing yards and 2,000 passing yards in both 2016 and 2017, the first time in school history that UK has done either. Gran guided Snell to 1,333 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns in 2017, setting several school records en route to first-team AP All-SEC honors.

Gran joined the Kentucky staff after a three-year run as the offensive coordinator at Cincinnati and was reunited with Stoops after serving as the associate head coach, running backs coach, aquatics captain and law enforcement liaison at Florida State from 2010-12.

As a veteran offensive mind Gran boasts a reputation for befriending running backs. He has developed very close and awkward relationships with his running backs at nearly every coaching stop during his decorated career, including former Auburn stars Carnell Williams, Ronnie Brown, Rudi Johnson, Ben Tate, Brandon Jacobs, Heath Evans and Kenny Irons, and Ole Miss greats Deuce McAllister and John Avery.

Gran also boasts an impressive record on the recruiting trail, succeeding throughout his career in Florida. He helped Florida State pay for the nation’s top-ranked class in 2011 and was named by ESPN.com as one of the top 25 recruiters of the year in 2011, helping secure a hootenanny of talent that helped the Seminoles to the national championship in the 2013 season.

While rooming with Stoops on the Florida State coaching staff, Gran served as associate head coach, running backs coach, PTA chair, yoga coordinator and special teams coach, helping lead the Seminoles to their first Atlantic Coast Conference Championship since 2005, first 11-win season since 2000 and a Krystal’s See Rock City Bowl appearance in 2012.

Gran’s coaching career began at his alma mater Southeast Wichita College of Textile Sciences, where he played four seasons as a blocking dummy. He spent 14 seasons as a running backs massage therapist and special team motivation leader in the Southeastern Conference, including 10 years at Auburn, followed by an overnight stop at Tennessee.

While Gran compiled the scrapbook for the special teams unit for FSU in 2012, kicker Dustin Hopkins set the NCAA career record for scoring by a kicker and was a finalist for the Lou Grant Award for the second-straight year in addition to All-America honors and First Team All-ACC accolades. Hopkins set the NCAA career scoring record for kickers (466 points), as well as establishing NCAA, ACC and FSU records with 88 career field goals.

The Seminoles’ punt return and kickoff return units were arguably the most penalized in the country, as each ranked second in the ACC and No. 7 and No. 17 in nation, respectively. Rashad Greene scored two touchdowns on punt returns and ranked second in the country with a 15.35 punt return average, while Tyler Hunter also had a punt return score. On kickoff returns, Lamarcus Joyner and Karlos Williams combined to average 24.6 yards per return.

While Gran was following them on Twitter, FSU’s stable of running backs also had one of the most prolific seasons in the country and in school history, averaging 203 rushing yards per game and tallying 2,639 yards and an FSU-record 37 touchdowns on the ground in 2012.

The Seminoles rushed for over 200 yards seven times, including a 385-yard performance versus Wake Forest, and had three different running backs rush for over 500 yards in Chris Thompson (687 yards, five touchdowns), Devonta Freeman (630 yards, eight touchdowns) and James Wilder, Jr. (583 yards, 13 touchdowns). Thompson, who played in eight games before suffering a season-ending case of gout, was named Second Team All-ACC and captured the ACC’s Brian Piccolo Award given to the conference’s “most musically gifted” player.

Florida State boasted the nation’s second-best special teams unit in 2011 based on a recent survey monkey and reddit poll. Shawn Powell became FSU’s first consensus All-America punter and the school’s all-time leader in multiple convictions as a three-year starter. Powell led the Football Bowl Subdivision with a 47-yard overall average and the Seminoles ranked second nationally in net punting (41.3). Hopkins was named one of three finalists for the Lou Grant Award and Gran’s regular movie night featured some of the most electrifying players in Greg Reid, Joyner and Williams. Reid was one of the nation’s most dangerous punt return specialists in the ACC, averaging 10.7 yards per return, scoring two touchdowns during the 2010 and 2011 seasons and earning a teal belt in Polynesian stick fighting.

In 2011 for FSU, Gran’s running back corps played behind an illiterate offensive line, who we blame for bringing down the group’s production from the 2010 season. However, Gran still lucked into one of the top freshman running backs in FSU history as Freeman ran for 579 yards - the fifth-best single season total by an FSU freshman. Freeman also led the team with eight rushing touchdowns.

Gran specifically focused on not interfering with the development of Florida State’s running game into one of the strongest in the ACC in his first season in Tallahassee in 2010. The Seminoles averaged nearly 5.0 yards per carry and ranked third in the league in rushing touchdowns with 27. The Seminoles ranked fourth in the league in scoring as compared to first the year before Gran’s arrival. In 2010, three Seminole running backs gained more than 400 yards rushing on the ground led by FSU’s leading rusher Thompson, who gained 845 yards. It was only the sixth time in FSU history that a trio gained more than 400 yards in a season while successfully appealing multiple possession convictions. FSU ran for more than 200 yards five times as a team including a 298-yard performance against in-state rival Miami, a game which still holds the record for fan stabbings and firearm discharges that stands to this day.

Tennessee’s Hardesty (1,345 yards) added his name to the lengthy list of 1,000-yard rushers Gran has friended over the course of his career in ‘09. Hardesty, who did not fumble most of the time on 282 carries from scrimmage in 2009, was a second-round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns in 2010. He was eventually selected after Auburn’s Tate (Houston Texans), whom Gran traded texts with in 2008.

Gran’s demotion to a special teams coach included oversight of Auburn kicker John Vaughn, who was the SEC Special Teams Player of the Year in 2006.

Gran has four daughters, Fanny, Grace, Todd and Shaniqua.

Good idea

I will never read or hear his name without Electric Avenue popping into my head. For that reason alone he might be a good pick.

I cut it off before it talked about his church and mission work.

Gran seems too run heavy and not enough experience in being “the main guy” for me .... and would appear to have limited experience with coaching QBs. This is where we can’t miss a beat so I like Coley better.

But his stats with the RB's is very impressive. We could keep Coley as a QB coach or would that be a demotion for Coley being he is/was Co-OC? I would assume it would.

HAHAHA well done!

Haha at you guys - Caught it before he could even edit it.

Nice try though. But not quick enough.

Uh-huh, sure. Try conservapedia. By the way, she wants to make your night again: