Yorkville’s Bryce Griffin has come a long way in football since the end of his sophomore year.
The senior defensive end/outside linebacker, who committed May 9 to Kent State, is somebody who again figures to have a big role on defense for the defending Southwest Prairie West champs.
“I was a nobody and new to the recruiting game,” Griffin said, looking back at his transition from sophomore to varsity to Division I college prospect as a junior.
Tall, lanky and lean, the 6-foot-3 Griffin is filling out.
“He started off the preseason at 170 pounds as a defensive end,” Yorkville coach Dan McGuire said during a break in the action at the 24th annual Battle of the Big Butts Lineman Challenge.
“He actually started our summer camp playing wide receiver for us.”
Griffin’s heart, though, was on defense. It’s where he had spent most of the time his first two years of high school. And it’s where he believes his future is as an edge rusher extraordinaire.
No argument here.
“He had an amazing year for us,” McGuire said of Griffin, who started his junior season shuffling between 180 and 185 pounds.
Griffin finished with 53 tackles for the Foxes (6-4, 4-1), who won their first conference title since 1989 and made it to the playoffs for a fifth straight season, losing 21-13 to Willowbrook in a Class 7A first-round game.
Twenty-two of Griffin’s stops were solo tackles, with 21 for loss. Those included seven sacks, which he considers his specialty.
“That’s really what I play the game for, that moment right there, getting a sack,” Griffin said.
He credited his one-on-one work every day in practice with 6-4, 260-pound Logan Brasfield , now a freshman offensive lineman at Coastal Carolina, for getting him ready for varsity action.
The year before, Brasfield had the same experience, battling future Colorado State defensive lineman Andrew Laurich in practice.
“I tried to play Logan every day like it was a game,” Griffin said. “We’d have little arguments every now and then. We could be some mean dudes. But at the end of the day, it was all about love.
“Going against a guy like Logan, I could see where I wanted to be.”
Griffin’s season also included six pass deflections and 10 quarterback hurries.
“All you’ve gotta do is keep trusting in your abilities and keep putting in the work and everything is going to be all right,” he said. “My strong suit is getting up the field, making sure my presence is known and the quarterback feels me every play by putting some hits on guys.”
Recruiting interest in Griffin picked up last summer, boosted by a highlight tape he sent out and his performance at several college camps.
He said his older brother Isaiah, who just turned 20 and played in high school, and their dad Quinten, who played in junior college and a season at Grambling State, helped him make the recruiting experience a team effort.
“I’ve grown up in a football family,” Griffin said. “Every dude in my family played football.”
While he started varsity a bit undersized, he’s the tallest in his immediate family by four inches and has been putting on more weight.
“I’m up to 200-205 pounds now,” Griffin said. “Last season, I lost a little the end. It just happened as the season went on. It’s not gonna happen this year. I’m not going under 200.”
Early junior game day invites first from Miami of Ohio and then Notre Dame — Griffin said, “that put me on the map” — got his recruiting rolling.
Kent State was also in the picture early and made the first of his seven offers that included Western Illinois, Miami, Bowling Green, Illinois State, Eastern Michigan and Northern Iowa.
The coaching staff at Kent State, according to Griffin, see him more as a standup, rush-type, every-play end rather than one with his hand in the dirt.
“They want me to get the quarterback,” he said. “I have a very simple job. I want to be the best I can at this edge stuff right now.”
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