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Former Boise State football player dies in early morning shooting in Sacramento

Former Boise State football player Greg Grimes was shot and killed early Monday morning outside of a nightclub in Sacramento, California, according to Sacramento police.

Sacramento Chief of Police Kathy Lester said calls about the shooting were first received around 1:51 a.m. on Monday. Grimes was rushed to a nearby hospital but efforts to save his life were unsuccessful. Four other people were wounded in the shooting.

Grimes, 31, was a defensive tackle at Boise State from 2009 to 2012 — a golden era for the program, which saw the Broncos go 49-4 and beat TCU in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl.

Grimes’ senior season was Boise State head coach Andy Avalos’ first year as the Broncos’ defensive line coach.

“I, and the entire Boise State football family, are saddened to learn about the passing of Greg Grimes,” Avalos said in a statement on Monday. “He was a member of the brotherhood who is gone way too soon. He will be missed.”

Former Boise State defensive end Shea McClellin, who played for the Broncos from 2008 to 2011, remembers Grimes as one of the most cheerful football players he was ever around. McClellin also said his former teammate’s instincts on the field were second to none.

“We had a nickname for him, ‘Greasy Greg,’ because he was so slippery and had all these moves to get out of any block,” McClellin said on Monday. “He was also the ‘screen sniffer’ because he could sniff out a screen better than just about anybody I played with.”

McClellin said he hand Grimes had sort of drifted apart over the years, but he’ll always cherish the time they spent together during one of the most successful eras in Boise State history.

“All the wins we had together and all the times we grinded together, it just brought us that much closer,” McClellin said.

Grimes was the first athlete from Inderkum High School near Sacramento to earn a college scholarship in any sport. After his playing career ended, he returned to Inderkum to coach football and work with special-education students, until last December, when he left to begin his own staffing firm, according to the Sacramento Bee.

“He was an amazing coach and role model to so many kids and wanted to do what he did — coach,” former Inderkum football coach Todd Hamasaki told the Sacramento Bee.

Grimes leaves behind a 4-year-old son, Jaceyon.