How a ‘unicorn event’ led Ryan Grubb back to Seattle with Seahawks

RENTON, Wash. – A week ago Wednesday, Ryan Grubb attended a booster event at Alabama, announcing himself as the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator.

Barely 48 hours later, he was seen at a pub in Renton with Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald and general manager John Schneider, having agreed to become Seattle’s offensive coordinator.

And on Thursday he answered questions from Seattle media as he was introduced in his new role.

“Yeah, it’s been pretty eventful, for sure,” said Grubb of the past few weeks, a whirlwind that began in January with helping lead the University of Washington to the College Football Playoff national championship. “It’s been a really exciting month, it’s been a tough month. But at the end of the day, it’s obviously a privilege and an honor to be here.”

But if it all seemed to have happened overnight, Grubb said it was, in reality, a longer time in coming.

Grubb said he first had significant conversations with Macdonald at the NFL combine early last year in Indianapolis, talks he said laid the groundwork for the events of the past few weeks.

Grubb attended the combine with then-UW quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who had wanted to attend to get a feel for the event and how the NFL scouting process works. Grubb said he also wanted to get a good look at the quarterback workouts.

Along the way, he had some talks with Macdonald. Grubb said the two had talked briefly a few times before.

“Started building a relationship, not with any necessary end in mind, but just how the process works in the football world,” Grubb said. “And got to know him through a couple different conversations and just kind of built that relationship over time.”

Grubb candidly admitted that in those talks, the two began hatching a plan that, if Macdonald got a head coaching job, he would consider hiring Grubb as the offensive coordinator.

“Kind of knew that potentially there would be an opportunity like this down the line,” Grubb said. “And didn’t necessarily think it would happen the very first year, but that was the reality.

“The first part was staying in communication, as Mike obviously had a great season as a (defensive) coordinator with the (Baltimore) Ravens, and I knew his name would come up in some search opportunities. And luckily for me, he ended right here in Seattle.”

As Grubb noted, though, the timing of NFL and college head coaching cycles made for some awkwardness along the way.

When Kalen DeBoer was announced as Alabama’s coach Jan. 13, Macdonald was still coaching with the Ravens and unclear exactly what his immediate future held.

So Grubb followed DeBoer to Alabama as the Tide’s apparent new OC.

“That was really the point, was to take the job down there and be the offensive coordinator,” Grubb said. “Nothing was set here.”

In fact, Macdonald did not interview with the Seahawks until Jan. 30. A day later, though, he was in Seattle accepting the job. And on Feb. 1, shortly after Macdonald’s introductory news conference, it was learned that the Seahawks were interested in Grubb as the OC.

But Grubb said even then that it remained unclear where things were headed, saying, “Mike was going through his process and trying to make the best decisions he could for the Seahawks. So nothing was set, and I had to keep going forward with the job I had taken.”

Another factor is that each side wanted to get past the 30-day period when Alabama players were free to enter the transfer portal following the retirement of Nick Saban. That passed Saturday.

“You just know that the timing is never going to be perfect,” Grubb said. “The best possible scenario (is that) you would love those timelines to marry up a little bit better. So that was the hardest part.”

But where he was Thursday, Grubb said, is where he hoped he’d always end up.

In fact, Grubb, 47, said he began thinking of the NFL three years ago when he and DeBoer were at Fresno State. Either that, or a head-coaching job in college – Grubb made no secret of his desire to succeed DeBoer with the Huskies.

“I would say at least about three years ago,” Grubb said of when he began thinking of an NFL job, saying that was when “I really started looking at, ‘Do I want to pursue the NFL or be a head coach?’ … That’s when I started to dive more into NFL film, started talking to more people who were in the NFL and started to look at what that would look like.”

That included, he said, what the lifestyle of an NFL coach could be compared with that of a college coach. Grubb admitted that some of the recent changes in college football make coaching at that level more challenging and played a factor in his desire to seek out the NFL.

But the bigger factor, he said, “was just being able to compete at the highest level.”

And there was no better time than now to make the leap. The Huskies are coming off a 14-1 season and were 25-3 over the past two years, and Grubb received much of the credit for helping develop Penix into a Heisman Trophy finalist with the Huskies finishing second in passing in college football.

Making it even better was being able to bring former UW offensive line coach Scott Huff with him.

“I think that continuity and the translation up front is really important,” Grubb said. “I’ve always felt like Scott was an NFL-caliber (offensive) line coach. He’s had opportunities to leave in the past, and so to be able to do it and have our system. … I think it’s a huge component.”

Neither Grubb nor Huff has NFL experience, leading to obvious questions about how they will translate their UW success to the Seahawks.

But Seattle took a big step Thursday in helping mitigate that lack of experience by hiring Jake Peetz as passing-game coordinator, according to a league source.

Peetz has nine years of NFL experience, including the past two as the passing game coordinator with the Los Angeles Rams working with Sean McVay. Peetz also has had stints with Washington, Jacksonville, the Raiders and Carolina.

Although the Huskies were a prolific passing offense, Grubb said that shouldn’t be read as him favoring a pass-first offense. Macdonald has said he wants the Seahawks to run well, and Grubb said that’s his goal, too.

“I think when you look at what we did, probably more specifically at UW over the last two seasons, we were accentuating the positives, and there’s three receivers that are probably going to get drafted this year, and so I think moving the football through the air was a logical choice,” he said. “We are going to be a physical team in Seattle. And over the years, that’s something that we’ve certainly done. When the components all matched up, we ran the ball very effectively.”

The message Grubb mostly wanted to send Thursday, though, was his giddiness at achieving a lifelong dream – and ultimately, after a month on the road, not having to move.

“Man, this is like the unicorn event in coaching,” he said. “So the fact that I got to stay right here and do it in a city, in a place that I already love, and I’ve had two years to let it marinate as far as what John Schneider does here and the ownership with the Seahawks, and just how classy an organization this is and how driven they are to success, it makes it really special.”

Seahawks add two more assistants

The Seahawks made another addition to Macdonald’s coaching staff Thursday, announcing Devin Fitzsimmons has been hired as assistant special-teams coach working under special-teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh.

Fitzsimmons has eight years of experience coaching special teams in the NFL, including spending the 2023 season as assistant special-teams coach with the Panthers, as well as the 2021-22 seasons with Arizona and 2016-18 with Detroit. Fitzsimmons has also coached tight ends in his career.

ESPN reported that the Seahawks are hiring Frisman Jackson as wide receivers coach.

Frisman, who played for the Browns, coached the wideouts for the Steelers the past two seasons. He’s also coached receivers for the Titans and Panthers.