Recruiting background: Seven Power 5 offers received throughout the course of his commitment. Minnesota definitely recruited him the hardest. He was also a take for Kentucky and hearing relatively consistently from Georgia Tech.
Minnesota fans obviously don’t look down upon smaller defensive tackles -- or at least, less so -- than other fanbases because of Steven Richardson’s success. I’m not expecting Richardson to be start as a freshman like Richardson, but I do see several tools that will allow him to make an impact from day one, even if he’s not needed.
First, his size: at 6’1” and 295 pounds, he has Big Ten-level weight already, and he carries that weight well. He’ll be able to add more weight and get faster because of it rather than slow him down. Obviously, 6’1” is a little less than ideal height, but as stated before, it can be overcome and can give him advantage getting leverage. He also appears to have decently long arms for someone that’s 6’1”.
He appears to be a good tackler. He wraps up and runs feet. He has great roll tackle form when chasing from inside-out leverage.
He has great block and ball recognition. In one play on his film, the tackle down blocks, so Griffin knows the ball is either going far away or off the tackle’s butt. Griffin gets to the gap, controls the lineman with good hands and extension, and waits for the ball to declare. Once the back bounces outside, he uses a nasty spin move by sinking his hips and using a pickaxe to finish, to get back outside the tackle and makes a great tackle on the ball carrier.
Running the rope: after beating the offensive lineman, Griffin replaces him tight to his butt so that the lineman can’t recover. Instincts and angles are harder to judge for a defensive tackle than linebacker, especially on a highlight tape, but he seems to feel movement and take good angles to the ball.
He also shows good gap control. He’s powerful enough to control the B and C gaps in high school. It’s not uncommon for DEs in a 3-4 defense to be responsible.
He’s quick off the snap for his size. Having some first step explosion helps make up for being shorter than the lineman across from you.
One area where I do think Griffin can improve is his pass rush. He’s very powerful and will have a solid bull rush, but he’ll need to develop one or two big counter moves in order to be a good pass rusher at the next level. A pass rushing DE will probably never be his role, which is fine because of his other talents and is typical for most defensive tackles. (Griffin plays some 5-tech on film but is quoted on record saying he’ll be a defensive tackle at Minnesota, which his body looks more like a fit for anyway. I normally don’t comment on position unless the player is on record declaring his position.)
Bottom line: I like Griffin and think he has some traits that will help make the jump to B1G football less of a jump than many defensive tackles. Many incoming defensive lineman need redshirts because they either haven’t grow into their frame, were able to dominate in high school off brute strength alone, didn’t receive proper coaching on technique, or a mix of those three. That’s not Griffin. Minnesota should have pretty good DT depth next year, so he should be able to redshirt and then join the DT rotation (Fleck/Smith seems to really like to rotate their DLs, as did Claeys and Kill). With his BGO, power, block recognition, and ability to run the rope, I think he could have a nice 3-4 years of contributing here.
You can also read Alex’s film review here. Of course, I’d also love to hear everyone else’s thoughts on Griffin. @Littlefinger, you played on the defensive line in high school, right?
