Auburn offensive line coach JB Grimes may be best known for his time on The Plains (this is his second stint at Auburn), but his coaching career spans over four decades and includesstops at Arkansas State with Gus Malzahn, Kansas, Mississippi State, East Carolina, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Arkansas, ULM and a host of other stops.
Before rejoining the Auburn staff, Grimes coached with his son, Nick, at Cincinnati as part of Tommy Tuberville's staff and spent last season at UConn working on the offensive side of the ball with former Malzahn assistant Rhett Lashlee.
In an article with AL.com, Grimes shared a number of lessons he's learned over the course of that coaching journey, including advice he would give to young coaches coming in to coach this new generation of players. His advice's foundation is knowing what you're willing, and not willing to budge on.
"The other thing is letting your guys know exactly what's negotiable and what's nonnegotiable," Grimes shares in the piece. "As I've gotten older, if I were to give a young coach advice, it would be that: Find out as early as you possibly can as a young coach, you as a young reporter, find out what you will not bend on, and then let everybody know that this isn't going to change, and if you try to negotiate something that is nonnegotiable, it is not going to go well for you.
Grimes also explains how today's generation of athletes aren't as trusting as he was back when he was a player, and as he was getting his start in coaching, and it's a balancing act for coaches to push them to their limits, love them up and gain their trust, and also be the type of guy that they want to go to when they need to talk out some issues they may encounter.
From the article:
"I think one of the things that's really, really, really important, and as I've gotten older had become even more prevalent and paramount in my thinking, and that's in dealing with young men, dealing with a different generation of guys. They don't always trust like I was raised. I was raised to trust people until they prove to me I couldn't trust them. That's not necessarily true in today's world, so what I have to do is not only drive and strain the guys that I'm coaching, but they have to trust me as well.
Head here to read more from Grimes, including why it's important to laugh with your guys as well.