Houston Griffith Comfortable With Notre Dame Decision

ORLANDO – Visits played a huge role in Notre Dame landing Houston Griffith‍ as the 2018 Illinois native made several trips down to South Bend from Chicago over the years and the elite defensive back made another trip back the day after he signed with the Irish last month.

“I just wanted to see the team practice again and get with the coaches and talk with them,” Griffith explained here this week from the Under Armour All-America Game.

“I was able to talk with the strength staff, start learning about the offseason program I’m going to have and I was able to talk with some of the players there and talk about how this transition from high school to college is going to be.”

Griffith made the trip with his father, former NFL fullback Howard Griffith.

“They told me they think I could play all four positions,” he said. “They’re going to start me off at corner, play nickel and work both safety positions because they want to get me on the field and see if I can compete.”

The former IMG Academy star will enroll at Notre Dame in a couple weeks and expects to begin his career playing the boundary corner spot. Still, he did enjoy the challenge of playing safety while at IMG.

“Corner, I pretty much was playing a lot of Man, not knowing everything,” he said. “I feel like safety, I had to know everything. I had to be able to help the linebackers get lined up, help the corners with giving them the calls. Being at IMG, our defense is not just a basic defense like other high schools. There’s a whole lot thrown at us, double-calls, that probably made me more of a leader and help those guys out as well.

“My first few weeks learning it, I had to start becoming more of a vocal leader, so that probably helped me become a captain and more of a leader of the defense as well. Once I got the hang of it, I was able to make a lot more plays this season. Being able to blitz, make a lot of tackles, meet the running backs in the hole, covering receivers and just being aggressive. That just really helped me a lot and showed my versatility as well.”

And as much as four years’ worth of visits helped Griffith become comfortable with Notre Dame as a school and a program, he wasn’t totally sold on the defense until Mike Elko arrived as coordinator this past year.

“They’re physical, aggressive,” he said. “When I went there in the spring, they were really just teaching the basics and techniques. Previous years, I saw them not making plays as defensive backs. It seemed like this year, the DBs were more involved in the defense.

“A good friend of mine, Julian Love, has been a two-time All-American there. I know what he can do. I’ve been working out with him and knowing him a long time. I just know Notre Dame can prepare me because he told me they could prepare me as well.”

It’s clear the personal interest head coach Brian Kelly took in Griffith’s recruitment was crucial as well.

“It was big,” said Griffith. “I’ve known him for a long time. Him knowing my family and being able to communicate with them about this whole process was easy for my family. My mom, she’s not all into the recruiting process, but Coach Kelly was able to talk to her and walk her through some of the stuff with Notre Dame. That really helped us a lot.”

Irish fans got a rare glimpse into the kind of bond Kelly is capable of forming with recruits when UND.com showed footage of the coach kidding Griffith about not being able to wear long sleeves if he wanted a single-digit number on National Signing Day. At least it seemed like he was kidding, but Griffith isn’t taking any chances.

“The plan is to be wearing number three, the single digit, no sleeves is what we told me, so that’s the plan.”