Grim leaves Nebraska: Never felt ‘like home’

Posted Aug. 25, 2016 at 8:37 PM

Derrion Grim never felt comfortable with Nebraska football: from his arrival for spring practice up to the precipice of the regular season.

For the former McNair football wide receiver, it wasn’t about adjusting to a Midwestern city after growing up in Stockton. Grim just didn’t fit in with Nebraska football, mostly because of its offense, he said.

This week, he made his move.

Grim has left Nebraska and returned to Stockton as he tries to plot the next step of his career. He’d been unhappy since spring football and wanted to leave then, he said. But the coaches denied his request to transfer and convinced him to stick it out.

It never clicked for The Record’s reigning All-Area Player of the Year.

“First off, it was just a (compatibility issue). It wasn’t somewhere I could feel like home,” said Grim, the California state record holder for receiving yards in a regular season, with 1,767 as a senior. “I stayed throughout fall camp and I still felt the same way.”

The biggest issue, Grim said, is that Cornhuskers coach Mike Riley and his staff promised Nebraska would utilize a four-wide receiver scheme on offense. That would allow younger players like the true freshman Grim more playing time and more targets.

“They told me they’d be passing more, that they’d go four-wide,” said Grim, son of former Franklin High and Pitt wide receiver La Te’f Grim.

According to Derrion Grim, that never happened. Riley could not be reached for comment Thursday. But Riley confirmed to Nebraska media members on Thursday that Grim was leaving and said that Grim had mentioned playing for a junior college (no scholarship release required).

Derrion Grim went straight to Riley once he’d made his decision, to speak man-to-man. Riley tried to get him to stay, to convince Grim that he would mesh into the offense in the long run, Grim said.

“I didn’t really believe him as much anymore,” he said.

Grim now is shrouded in uncertainty. If Nebraska releases him from his scholarship, he can seek a Division I program that would take him in right away. If not, Grim could play only for a junior college. Should that happen, Grim said he has no idea where he’d play.

Grim expects Riley to block his release. He keeps calling Riley, he said, but hasn’t reached Riley since leaving.

La Te’f Grim has known about his son’s discontent since its beginnings. Initially, he tried to convince Derrion to stick it out, but he’s sympathetic to his choice.

“It was kind of a late decision, but it’s been going on for awhile,” said La Te’f Grim, who makes his debut as Chavez’s head coach today. “I told him to stick through it and make a decision later on, and that’s what he did. He pushed it as far as he could.”

Besides his unhappiness with the offense, one of the coaches Grim has been closest to since the recruitment process is in trouble.

Nebraska wide receivers coach Keith Williams, a Tokay High graduate, was arrested for a DUI recently, his third drunk-driving offense. Riley said firing Williams was under consideration, according to a story by the Omaha World-Herald, but eventually he was given a four-game suspension.

Williams’ recruitment was instrumental in obtaining Grim, who was once a Boise State verbal commit. He even gave Grim his first nickname as a Husker — “Cherry” — referencing a dyed-red stripe in Grim’s hair.

Yet, Derrion Grim said Williams’ DUI and suspension have little to do with his departure.

“Environmentally, he said it wasn’t for him. Now he has to find something that fits for him,” La Te’f Grim said.

At 6-foot and 195 pounds, Grim was projected to see considerable playing time off the bench. His father feels that should be a point of pride and something his son should remember in this time of stress.

Said La Te’f Grim, “You went down as a 17-year-old kid, and you were projected to play.”