Notre Dame S Houston Griffith Embracing Leadership Role & New Defense
Houston Griffith made the tough decision to enter the Transfer Portal following the 2020 season, but he might have made an even more challenging decision to return to Notre Dame a few weeks later.
The Chicago native isn’t the first player to enter the Transfer Portal and decide to remove their name, but Griffith put his trust into someone he hadn’t been coached by in new Notre Dame defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman.
Freeman and head coach Brian Kelly challenged Griffith to compete, finish his degree and lead the Irish defense in 2021.
“I’ve never been afraid of competition,” said Griffith. “I couldn’t turn that down and have the opportunity to finish my degree, which I’m about to finish up in the next few weeks at Notre Dame. I’m looking forward to playing in this defense and helping this unit grow as a team.”
Griffith takes great pride in leadership and has seen outstanding leadership from the safety position during his time at Notre Dame. Alohi Gilman, Jalen Elliott and Shaun Crawford were great examples for Griffith and he knows it’s his time to do the same.
“Continuing to have reps and continuing to work on the details and fine-tuning my game is something I’ve been working on,” stated Griffith. “Having this leadership role is something I enjoy. It’s something that has been able to challenge me. I’m just trying to continue to put confidence in the other guys in front of me and bring the best out of myself and the other 10 guys out there on the field, so we can be the best defense each and every play and so we can be the best defense in the country.”
On the practice field, Notre Dame is over halfway through the spring and Griffith has enjoyed working in Freeman’s defense.
“Coach Freeman’s defense allows us to play with multiple fronts and coverages,” explained Griffith. “It’s something the secondary, linebackers and the defensive line really enjoy. Everybody is going to be able to go out there and utilize their skillset and go out there and play fast with a lot of effort and attitude.
“We talk about swarming to the football and playing with a nasty attitude. We want teams to feel us every time and we’re going to bring a lot of pressure. We’re going to be about that action at the end of the day.”
In addition to being at Notre Dame for three years, Griffith has played every position in the secondary, which he feels gives him an advantage, but he also has made sure to challenge himself to do more as he knows it’s his time.
“I’ve been able to learn all three defensive back positions,” Griffith stated. “This offseason, I’ve really challenged myself as a football player and academically to really become a student of the game and finish up my degree. Any time I finish up with classwork, I have the opportunity to come get recovery in and get a quick meeting with Coach Freeman and Coach (Chris) O’Leary.
“Coach O’Leary always preaches to focus on the details and to get one percent better every day. That’s something I’ve really been challenging myself to do and really staying in the film and my playbooks, so I can help the young guys and the 10 other guys on the field have confidence in me the same way I have confidence in them.”
The hiring of O’Leary was met with some questions from Notre Dame fans because they didn’t know too much about him and really still don’t other than the fact players and recruits have spoken extremely highly of him over the last two months.
“It’s been great being with Coach O’Leary,” Griffith said. “He’s a guy who brings a lot of energy and juice to the room. There’s something about Coach O’Leary that the rest of the safeties really enjoy. Every practice before we start up, he brings us all together and he brings up one word. Today was communication and that was something we try to emphasize in practice. We tried to over-communicate and that’s something we continue to build.
“I feel Coach O’Leary is someone who tries to push us each day and someone who wants us to be great on and off the field. I just continue to enjoy Coach O’Leary and the time we’ve had with him has been great.”
O’Leary has not only made time for his veteran safety to improve his game, but he’s making sure Griffith has enough knowledge to pass it to the younger players in the safety corps.
“Being able to watch film is something I really just enjoy,” said Griffith. “It’s something I’ve been trying to work on this offseason and being around Coach O’Leary, he gives me tips that help me go out there and play fast. Those tips are something the young guys look at me - me being the older guy, the young guys look at me. I try to be able to teach them some of the things I’ve learned from him.
“My football IQ has grown over the last few months and that’s something that will continue to grow and develop over the next few months going into this season.”