FootballScoop is proud to announce that Jason Grooms (Ohio) as the 2013 FootballScoop Director of Football Operations of the Year presented by ProGrass.
If Frank Solich is the brains of Ohio football, then Jason Grooms is definitely the program's heart and soul. What other DFO do you know whose job duties include breaking the team down for every practice? Oh, and, has any other DFO ever received the gatorade treatment?
Grooms goes so far above and beyond his job duties that Bobcats' coaches have to worry about two things and two things only when they show up to work every day: coaching and recruiting.
In fact, Grooms goes so far beyond the call of duty that we had a number of Ohio employees that work outside of athletics gleefully nominating him for this award. That's what we mean when we say Grooms is the heart and soul of Ohio football.
Players love him, coaches respect him, the DFO community thinks his future is as bright as anyones and he means as much to Ohio University as previous winner Matt Doyle does to Stanford. Grooms goes out of his way to develop and further the careers of others, and is unrivaled in his organizational skills, attention to detail and complete devotion to his program.
A native of Frankfort, Ohio, Grooms earned a bachelor's and a master's degree at Ohio, and began working as a student assistant from 1997-2001. He followed Jim Grobe to Wake Forest following the 2001 season, working as a defensive graduate assistant for two years. Grooms served as outside linebackers coach during East Tennessee State's 2003 season, and then spent the 2004 season as outside linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator at Elon.
Grooms returned to Ohio in 2005, where he has remained ever since. He has overseen upgrades to the Bobcats' team meeting rooms, coaches' offices, staff rooms, locker room, meeting rooms, a new trophy room and a new playing surface within Peden Stadium during his second stint at Ohio. Grooms was promoted to assistant athletics director for football operations prior to the 2011 season.
The FootballScoop Coaches of the Year awards presented by ProGrass are the only set of awards that recognize the most outstanding position coaches in college football. The finalists (Grooms, Tony Sales - Duke and Dan Van De Riet - Oregon State) were selected based off of nominations by coaches, athletic directors, and athletic department personnel. The prior winners selected this year's winner.
Grooms will receive his award and be recognized at an event at the AFCA Convention in January.
Previous winners of the Director of Football Operations of the Year award are Tom Deahn (Temple, 2009), Mike Kerin (West Virginia, 2010), Mike Sinquefield (TCU, 2011) and Matt Doyle (Stanford, 2012).
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