Just five years ago, Zach Grant turned heads across the college football landscape when he ascended to the role of director of player personnel at Football Bowls Subdivision program Western Kentucky at age 23 – easily the youngest DPP in FBS.
Now, sources tell FootballScoop that Grant has another major move on the horizon.
Grant is poised to take over a lead personnel role for Ryan Day’s Ohio State Buckeyes’ powerhouse program, sources tell FootballScoop, a move expected to be finalized this week.
The Buckeyes, coming off a Rose Bowl championship season in Day’s third year and returning Heisman Trophy finalist C.J. Stroud at quarterback, are continuing to enhance and upgrade their recruiting and personnel departments, per sources, as they seek to return to the College Football Playoff and chase the program’s first national title since 2014.
In Grant, they’re poised to add a highly experienced young personnel expert who served under Brian Kelly at Notre Dame prior to Grant’s climb at WKU, where he climbed from director of player personnel to the program’s general manager prior to the 2021 season. At Notre Dame, Grant worked directly under Irish veteran personnel man Dave Peloquin – who’s proved a priceless resource through multiple Notre Dame head coaches.
Grant was critical as the Hilltoppers landed record-setting quarterback Bailey Zappe, his equally record-shattering wide receiver Jerreth Sterns and defensive end DeAngelo Malone, who exited with a program-best 34 career sacks.
In fact, in a foundational 2021 class that catapulted the ‘Toppers to a 9-5 season and dominant win against Appalachian State in the Boca Raton Bowl, Grant helped Tyson Helton & Co. assemble a recruiting class that relied almost exclusively on the NCAA Transfer Portal; WKU a year ago signed more than a dozen players from the Portal, including from Power 5 programs Oregon, Nebraska, North Carolina and Michigan State.