Grant Udinski, 29, leaves Vikings to be new OC for Jaguars

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  • Michael Dirocco5. February 2025, 23:49 one one

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      Michael Dirocco is an NFL reporter at ESPN. Dirocco covers Jacksonville Jaguars. He covered former University of Florida for over a decade for ESPN.com and Florida Times-Union. Dirocco graduated from Jacksonville University and is a winner of multiple apse prices. You can follow Dirocco on Twitter at @spndirocco.

Jacksonville, Fla. – Six years ago, Grant Udinski lived in his car at a Walmart parking lot at the start of his coaching career.

On Wednesday night, Jacksonville Jaguars named him their new offensive coordinator.

Udinski, 29, joined the new coach Liam Coens staff after serving as an assistant offensive coordinator/assistant quarterbacks coach for Minnesota Vikings this season. However, Udinski will not call acting Jaguars, as Coen said at his initial news conference that he would.

“Grant will bring a wealth of knowledge, energy and a winning mindset to help lead our violation here in Jacksonville,” Coen said in a statement. “He is a rising star in this league that has been a pillar successfully for the Vikings organization and we can’t wait to get him to lead our violation.”

Jaguars are also planning to hire former Seattle Seahawks and Chicago Bears the offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, probably in a passing game coordinator role, sources of ESPNS Jeremy Fowler told Thursday. Waldron and Coen worked together on Sean McVay’s RAMS staff from 2018 to ’20.

Udinski, who played tight end at Davidson and defensive end at Towson, got his start in coaching as a candidate assistant in Baylor in 2019 under coach Matt Rhule. The Bucks County Courier Times newspaper reported that Udinski lived in his car at a Walmart parking lot the first week he was in Waco, Texas, before Baylor Defensive Coordinator Phil Snow found out and invited him to move in.

When Rhule took Carolina Panthers’ main coach job the following season, he brought snow with the defensive coordinator and hired Udinski as a coaching assistant.

The ropes were fired after the 2022 season, and Udinski landed on Kevin O’Connell’s Vikings staff as assistant to the main coach/special projects. O’Connell promoted Udinski to Assistant Quarterbacks Trainer in 2023 and then to Assistant Offensive Coordinator/Assistant Quarterbacks Trainer in 2024.

Udinski helped Vikings Quarterback Sam Darnold revive his career in 2024. Darnold put career heights in completion percentage (66.2%), Yards (4,319) and Touchdown Passports (35) and led the Vikings to a 14-2 record.