Well, here’s something you don’t see often in college football. On Tuesday morning, it was reported by Sports Illustrated that Mississippi State is expected to hire Louisville’s Todd Grantham, who has been with Bobby Petrino for the last three seasons. Included in the report was that MSU defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon “will not return” to Starkville for next season.
Louisville and Mississippi State basically traded defensive coordinators
Yep, you heard that correctly.
Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports
But, where this story gets even whackier is that shortly after the reports of Grantham heading to Starkville came out, it became official that Sirmon was going to replace Grantham at Louisville. That’s right — Louisville and Mississippi State essentially ended up trading defensive coordinators. FootballScoop reported the Sirmon deal was being worked on “for some time.”
Both moves are now official.
The last time we saw a trade of sorts happen in college football was last January, with the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas A&M Aggies, but this time it was basically a swap of quarterbacks. Former Texas A&M five-star quarterback Kyler Murray announced last Christmas Eve that he’d be transferring to Oklahoma, and the Aggies got former Sugar Bowl-winning quarterback Trevor Knight from the Sooners.
Grantham, if he is in fact heading to Starkville, brings a lot of experience along with him. He was Georgia’s defensive coordinator with Mark Richt from 2010-13, and prior to that he was on various NFL defensive staffs, including the Indianapolis Colts, Cleveland Browns, and Houston Texans.
Sirmon was named MSU’s defensive coordinator last season. The Bulldogs finished this season ranked 73rd defensively, according to S&P+. Prior to arriving in Starkville, he was the associate head coach and linebackers coach at USC from 2014-15 after serving two seasons at Washington.
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