Report: Oklahoma State expected to hire ECU's Jules Montinar as defensive backs coach

The Oklahoma State Cowboys reportedly have a new defensive backs coach. According to Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports, they’re hiring East Carolina’s Jules Montinar.

“Oklahoma State is expected to hire ECU’s Jules Montinar as a defensive backs coach, sources tell me and @chris_hummer for @CBSSports/@247Sports,” Zenitz posted on X. “Has coached players like early-round draft prospect Shavon Revel at ECU. Previously worked as a DB coach at places like Florida, Temple and USF.”

The move is another the Cowboys have made to bolster their staff after making some major changes this offseason. Earlier in the last week, they decided to hire long-time coach Todd Grantham as the program’s new defensive coordinator, ESPN’s Chris Low reported.

Grantham has spent the past two seasons on staff for the New Orleans Saints. He’s had extensive experience in the college ranks too, and he’ll bring a wealth of knowledge to Stillwater.

Most recently, Todd Grantham was a defensive analyst at Alabama in 2022 following a four-year stint as Florida‘s defensive coordinator under former head coach Dan Mullen. Grantham has also worked at Georgia, Louisville, Michigan State, Mississippi State and Virginia Tech in the past.

During his time as a college coach, Grantham has coached a slew of future NFL players. Most notably, he coached first-rounders CJ Henderson, Jeffery Simmons, Montez Sweat, Jonathan Abram, Jaire Alexander, Sheldon Rankins, Leonard Floyd, Jarvis Jones, Alec Ogletree and Dimitrius Underwood.

Following the season, coach Mike Gundy was a little reticent to discuss potential staff changes.

“The thing that we as a staff are trying to get accomplished is we have a good class of high school players that we want to be the next group for 2025,” Gundy said. “There’s a lot of opinions going around that we think that that’s important to continue the core values.

“You have the uncertainty of what the portal will bring you or take away from you in December. So you can have some broad thought but to get into real detail now would be a little uncertain from the standpoint of we really don’t know. We just have to wait and see what happens. I’m guessing there’ll be a lot of clarity on Dec. 4-6.”

Oklahoma State delivered that clarity when it fired both offensive coordinator Kasey Dunnand defensive coordinator Bryan Nardo following a 3-9 finish to the season.

Now, Todd Grantham will step in looking to shore up the defensive side of the ball, with Jules Montinar helping him get the job done, it seems.

On3’s Thomas Goldkamp contributed to this article