Blacksburg, VA., Mar. 21- Cody Grimm: A poster hung in the merryman athletic building reflecting academics and sports. Photo: Terrell Edmunds
Terrell Edmunds
March 23, 2016
The walk to becoming an All-American
After earning Iron Hokie honors, All-ACC honors, and All-American honors as a whip linebacker. One would think that Cody Grimm was a player who was highly recruited and offered a scholarship, but he was only a walk on.
Being the clear cut starter his senior year, standing at only 5’11, 210 pounds, Cody Grimm lead the Virginia Tech Defense with 109 tackles and 12.5 tackles for a loss, stated by Hokie Sports. Grimm was also named an All-ACC linebacker as well as a Third-team All-American linebacker, by the Associated Press stated AugustaFreePress. Also, Grimm was named the defensive MVP of the peach bowl. Grimm was the second walk-on in history to gain All-American honors at Virginia Tech.
“Coming out of high school, I had some D1-AA offers, nothing major but I thought I could play. I played some good kids in high school, and I thought I had the opportunity to play at this level,” Grimm said.
In high school, Grimm was a standout, named the Northern Region Defensive Player of the Year his senior year by his school. Even after being one of the best players in his region, Grimm was still not the one to gain many offers. Coming from high school, Grimm received only one Division I offer from William & Mary. However, despite multiple lacrosse offers, Grimm decided to come as a preferred walk on to Virginia Tech.
“Going into college, I was a preffered walk-on, but I doubt they thought they had anything out of me. So, I started by making little goals for myself. I wanted to play well, and I wanted to get in the three deep to start,” Grimm said.
After his redshirt year, Grimm began by taking reps on special teams. During his redshirt freshman year Grimm recorded a total of ten tackles, and it wasn't until his sophomore year when Grimm actually started getting reps at the whip linebacker spot.
Blacksburg, VA., Mar. 22- Cody Grimm: The retired All-American Grimm as a Virginia Tech graduate assistant. Photo: Terrell Edmunds
It was not until Grimm’s junior year is when he received a full athletic scholarship. After only starting a few of the fourteen games, Grimm recorded 71 total tackles and two interceptions. During Grimm’s junior year, he earned the Moseley Award for being one of the hardest hustlers during the off-season, and also was named an Iron Hokie. After Grimm’s senior year, he was drafted in the 7th round to the Buccaneers. Grimm recorded 73 tackles, two interceptions, and a touchdown in his NFL career.