Loading ...Fort Wayne Homestead WR Isaac Griffith commits to Indiana
6 comments
by Dustin Dopirak | Monday, June 11, 2012 - 3:07 pm UTC
According to 247Sports.com, Indiana got its first commitment for the 2013 class in Fort Wayne Homestead wide receiver Isaac Griffith. Griffith earned a scholarship offer after a one-day camp on Sunday.
More to come.
UPDATE: 3:43 p.m.: Isaac Griffith went into a one-day camp at Indiana on Sunday knowing he was there to impress one man.
Indiana quarterbacks/wide receivers coach Kevin Johns had already been to Fort Wayne Homestead to see Griffith run routes and, according to Griffith, told the 6-foot, 180-pound wide receiver that he would offer him a scholarship if it was his call, but that head coach Kevin Wilson had to see Griffith personally before he would sign off. Griffith got his chance at a one-day camp on Sunday and made the most of it.
“I felt like I left everything on the table,” Griffith said. “I did everything in my power to do what I had to do. I’m always going to compete. I want to compete against the best. If I lose the rep, I’m going to get back in line and compete again.”
That’s exactly the sort of attitude Wilson wants to see in a camp setting. Not surprisingly, that led to a scholarship offer, which in turn led to Griffith’s commitment on Monday. He became the Hoosiers’ first verbal commitment in the Class of 2013, passing up on interest from Illinois and Northwestern and scholarship offers from several Mid-American Conference teams, including Ball State, Kent State, Miami (Ohio), Ohio, and Toledo. Wyoming had also offered.
Griffith said the team made him feel “like family.” He already had a relationship with Fort Wayne natives Lawrence Barnett and Kenny Mullen, cornerbacks who played at Bishop Luers. That was important, but he also said he believed in Wilson to build the program, despite last year’s 1-11 finish.
“ I have the gut feeling that Coach Wilson is going to win games and win with the right guys,” Griffith said. “He said he wants the right guys in the program. He said ‘That’s why we don’t have any commits right now, is because I want the right guys at my school. The school is behind us, I just gotta get the right guys on the team.’ I feel like I’m the right guy for them and they really made me feel at home.”
Griffith, the son of Manchester College coach Shannon Griffith, caught 60 passes for 1,112 yards and 22 touchdowns last season for a 10-1 team at Homestead. He said he expects to be used as a slot receiver at Indiana.
“They told me I could succeed very well in that offense,” Griffith said. “I think I’m a smart player, and I’m a coach’s son, and I think I’m pretty good at finding holes in a defense.”
Nice pickup today. I find it interesting that he mentioned the “not having any recruits yet”. I dont believe we are going to sign a huge class anyway, so I’m hoping he keeps up the selective nature. Much like Crean had to do with the bball program, you have to build the attitude you want right along with the talent. Obviously Wilson’s task is a mountain compared to Crean’s task though. That’s not underselling what Tom has done. It’s underscoring what Coach K has to do.
Not sure how big the 2013 class will be. I assume it will be average size. It all depends on the number of transfers at the end of the season.
I like the comment about “the right guys.” Attitude, mental toughness and competitiveness are huge factors. I think that is what KW’s comments eferred to.
Decades ago, I did some scouting for IU football. Went to High School games in the area I lived, spoke with HS coaches, and tried to provide IU’s coaching staff with some perspective on the area’s over-looked talent. Before I began, I had a meeting with one of IU’s assistant coaches who was coordinating IU’s recruiting for that area. I’ll paraphrase the thing he emphasized during that meeting. “Size, speed and athleticism are easy to spot. But a lot of HS kids play sports because they’re simply good athletes. They’re bigger, or faster, or stronger than their peers, so the sport is relatively easy and fun. They are not necessarily competitive people. In fact, a lot of athletically gifted kids are not competitive people. In order to succeed at the college level, a young man needs to have the athletic ability, but most importantly, he needs to be highly competitive. Evaluating a HS kid’s competitiveness is more difficult, but here are some things to look for.” He then proceeded to give me a tutorial on how to spot a high level of competitiveness in High School football players.
Podunker…Bob Hicks, a tremendously funny and intelligent guy used to love to tell the following story. “One year I had a list of about 1100 kids to check out. Of those, some 600 fell out because they just didn’t have the size for the Big 10. Of the 500 left, 300 wrote back a form checking the box that said ‘no interest’ in Indiana, of the 200 left about 100 did not qualify academically, of the we got film on 8o; of the 80 we decided to look at 40 some more, of the 40, 20 wanted another school real bad, of the 20 left we brought in 15 for a visit, five fell of for grades or behavior before spring, of the 10; 7 committed, of the seven two changed their minds and signed the national letter elsewhere, five came on campus, one got in trouble right away, two couldn’t play a lick, one hurt a knee is double session and one played any time at all….and he wasn’t very good…”
He continued: “I’m just looking for two…”
Great to have Isaac Griffith as our first commitment and to hear that Coach Wilson has some great standards and will hold to them. I think we agree…we trust what he is creating.
My first year scouting for IU, two kids I had identified eventually received offers from IU. One went to Duke and quit after his freshman year. Another went to IL State, became a starter his sophomore year and played until he suffered a career ending knee injury in the first game of his senior year. He did not choose to red shirt and to my knowledge, he never got his degree.
I thought both kids were “Can’t miss” players for IU. The guy that went to Duke was huge and a really accomplished HS football player. No one understood why he chose to play football for Duke. As it turned out, he was not a real competitive individual and had hedged his bet by selecting the best school he could get into, using football as a means to get into Duke. The kid that went to IL State wanted to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.
I learned from those few years I scouted how difficult recruiting can be and that a school’s football reputation is a huge factor. I played with a guy in High School that was an All American running back. He had offers from almost every D-I college in the country. One day, Bear Bryant came to our High School. To those of us that played football, it was like God arriving on campus. He had one meeting that lasted about 30 minutes, made a very, very simple pitch to my teammate. We asked him, “what did the Bear say?” He told us, “not much, he simply said, ‘I’d like you to play football for Alabama. You’ll get a quality education, good coaching and the opportunity to play for a national championship.’ My teammate had never been to the University of Alabama, had never toured the campus and had never even lived in the south, but it was Bear Bryant! He signed the Letter-of-Intent on the spot and it was a done deal.
As it turned out, as a fifth year senior, his Alabama team won the National Championship.
The son of a coach…after discussing with dad he decided on IU. Something special about a dad giving sound advice versus auctioning his son to the highest bidder…welcome to IU!