Grubb and Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer have worked together at multiple stops over their coaching careers. The two overlapped at Sioux Falls (2007 to '09), Eastern Michigan ('14 to '16) Fresno State ('17 to '18,

DeBoer and Grubb built high-powered offenses together at previous stops, including Washington and Fresno State.

But Grubb was sticking with the head coach with whom he’d through the ranks from the back roads of Sioux Falls to the pinnacle of the college game. He was a Kalen DeBoer guy, enough so to follow him to Tuscaloosa last January to accept the gig he rebuffed a year earlier.