Louisville football: 4 recruits who could close out the 2020 class
By Jacob Lane
Josh Griffis – Defensive end
247 Sports: 3-star – National ranking: 542nd, DE ranking: 21, Florida ranking: 76
Three-star defensive linemen Josh Griffis may be a new name to the recruiting board for Louisville football fans as he’s been committed to ACC foe Florida State since April of this year and Florida before that.
Louisville is reportedly stayed in close contact with Griffis despite him being committed elsewhere, and that now looks like it could pay off after Florida State relived Willie Taggart of his coaching duties this past weekend, leaving the class of 2020 up in the air for the next several weeks.
Even before the firing of Willie Taggart, Cardinal Authority’s Jody Demling reported that the staff had been pushing to get Griffis for an official visit to campus and that he believed it could be close to happening.
If Griffis ends up taking a visit to campus it would be hard to see him getting out of town without committing. Louisville has an immediate need at defensive end with G.G. Robinson and Amonte Caban exhausting their eligibility while Jared Goldwire and Tabarius Peterson will be entering their final seasons with Louisville next season.
Griffis chose the Seminoles back in April over several other power five programs, including his childhood program Florida, so if he does decide to open his recruitment things could get interesting.
Should Griffis decide to become a Card, Louisville would be getting a powerful, run-stopping defensive end who has shown he can play with the best of the best this season suiting for IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Last season he sat behind the number one player in the country Nolan Smith, but this season he’s gotten the chance to be the star of the defense and has proven he can be just that. The 6’4, 235-pound defensive end has 21 solo tackles, including 10 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks in just eight games in 2019.
It’s not hard to see why Mark Ivey and the Louisville staff are pursuing Griffis. In an article from Tashan Reed of The Athletic($) (who appeared on the BRL Podcast a few weeks back to discuss Florida State), Griffis’ high school coach Kevin Wright spoke about what type of player the three-star linemen is, saying:
“He’s what I call a ‘six-second guy. The average play lasts six seconds and he’s going to play every six seconds, maybe 6.5 seconds. He doesn’t stay blocked very long. He’s an effort guy and he’s a guy that’s got a chip on his shoulder right now.”
The description of Griffis play as well as the statistics he’s put up this season show what type of player he can be at the collegiate level and why he’d be a perfect fit at Louisville. With Scott Satterfield as head coach, the program will always be looking for skillful and hungry players who love the game of football – something that matches Griffis to a tee.
He’s still committed to Florida State as I write this, and there’s always a chance that Florida gets reinvolved, but I think if Josh Griffis steps foot on campus it wouldn’t be shocking to see Griffis ultimately end up a Cardinal.
**Updated 11/5**
As I wrote originally yesterday the key for Louisville was going to be getting Josh Griffis to campus for an official visit and we now know that just that will be happening this weekend.
https://twitter.com/joshgriffis_/status/1191781079121899520
We also know, courtesy of Dave Lackford, that Griffis had already been scheduled to visit campus for Louisville’s final home game of the season against Syracuse on November 23rd but has now moved it up to this weekend. With Louisville football being on the road against Miami, that visit will officially take place on Sunday.
Both are great signs for Louisville’s chances when it comes to landing the extremely talented Griffis. I would probably think it’s safe to say that the Cards will be officially on commitment watch this weekend.