UofL picked up a commitment today from the number 1 JUCO TE in the country per 247sports Austin Griffin. Griffin, originally out of St George, UT, is playing for Mt San Antonio College in Walnut, CA.
Committed. #L1C4 pic.twitter.com/AZ0OlRWESc
— Austin Griffin (@austgriff) July 30, 2018
Griffin is a 6’7 250 lbs TE that had offers from Florida Atlantic, Fresno State, and UNLV, among others. Chris Klenakis was the primary recruiter for UofL per 247sports.
Just looking at his measurements, you can tell Griffin is big and powerful. He looks like he will be an immediate contributor as soon as he sets foot on campus.
While there aren’t many highlights of Griffin, I did find some and they left me wanting to see more. He’s a legit 6’7 and is easy to spot on the field. His arms are long and his hands are big. These two traits give him an unbelievable catch radius. He showed great ability to adjust to the ball, as one was thrown behind him, but he easily made the catch. Griffin projects to be an excellent red zone target for his QB.
The next noticeable thing about Griffin is that he has breakaway speed. He ran a simple seam route in one highlight and then took off, dusting the defense for a TD. Ever since Bobby Petrino has returned to UofL, he has preached about wanting more speed; Griffin appears to possess that.
His route running is good, but I think it could and will get better. Of course, what’s great about Griffin is that even when it appears he’s covered, he’s still technically open.
Griffin tracks the ball well in the air. As mentioned before, he is able to adjust his body to make a catch on a ball off target. He catches the ball with his hands, away from his body. This makes him much less likely to drop passes.
I only saw one blocking highlight. In it, he powered a defender about 8-10 yards downfield. He’s a big strong player with good footwork. I expect him to be able to block admirably when called upon to do so.
What Coach Bobby Petrino got with Austin Griffin is a player that has the potential to be a big time playmaker for the offense at the TE position. Griffin is such a great athlete, however, I could see him lining up at WR sometimes. Griffin has excellent catching ability, great speed, and he’s such a big target. It appears Petrino wants to utilize his TEs more as weapons in the passing game and he’s recruiting the playmakers at the position to do it. Griffin is a player I expect could be a major playmaker for UofL in the future.
