Alex Grinch


Alexander Gregory Grinch is an American football coach who currently serves as defensive coordinator and safeties coach at the University of Oklahoma.

Playing career

Grinch played defensive back at Mount Union College from 1998 to 2001. During that time, Mount Union amassed a record of 54-1 and won three NCAA Division III Football Championships. Grinch graduated from Mount Union in 2002 with a bachelor's degree in sport management.

Coaching career

From 2002 to 2004, Grinch was a graduate assistant under Gary Pinkel at the University of Missouri, and he completed his master's degree in educational leadership and policy analysis at Missouri in 2004.
Grinch's first regular assistant coaching job was at Division I-AA New Hampshire under Sean McDonnell. In 2005 and 2006, Grinch was the cornerbacks coach. After a promotion, Grinch became the recruiting coordinator and coached the entire defensive secondary in 2007 and 2008.
Again working under Pinkel, Grinch coached the safeties at Missouri from 2012 to 2014.
From 2015 to 2017, Grinch was the defensive coordinator and secondary coach at Washington State under Mike Leach.
In January 2018, Grinch joined Urban Meyer's staff at Ohio State as co-defensive coordinator.
In January 2019, Grinch joined Lincoln Riley's staff at Oklahoma as defensive coordinator.

Personal life

Grinch grew up in Grove City, Ohio and graduated from Grove City High School. In 2003, he married Rebecca Blaser. They have two children. He is the nephew of longtime Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel, under whom Grinch worked as a graduate assistant and safeties coach.