WSU Football Recruiting 2014: New Commitment Griffin Says He’s a Shutdown Corner

The Cougars are stocking up on the Griffin name in their 2014 class, Kevin committed just a couple days ago on the 25th to become the seventh WSU commit. He said the coaches were whoopin’ and hollerin’ on the phone when he called and told them of his decision so that tells you the excitement that he is bringing to the program.

He also put a big target on his back, telling Cougar Nation that he’s a “shutdown corner”. Some people will take that as brash and perhaps a bit overly cocky but honestly, it’s not a bad thing at all that he said it and I actually love the swagger that he’ll be bringing with him based on a comment like that. I remember two guys by the names of Marcus Trufant and Jason David that came in with that attitude and the moniker of “shutdown” at corner and they didn’t disappoint in the least. Damante Horton was similar in attitude but he has a lot to prove to Cougar Nation this season in order to be put anywhere near that class and 2013 recruit Daquawn Brown is another kid that will have a chance to be that kind of DB.

The Mike Leach Cougs have been going after bigger corners and it’s a much needed change from the smaller, “quicker” corners of the past decade or so after Mike Price left. While those corners were all the rage in the mid 2000’s, the bigger types have been on many teams’ radars since the Seattle Seahawks made it popular over the past couple seasons and really Stanford, USC and Arizona succeeded even before that in the past 5 or 6 years in the Pac-12.

Griffin himself is 6’1″, 180 lbs and probably puts on another inch or two and maybe 10 pounds his senior season. He’s out of De La Salle High School in Concord, California and is a quick footed, reactive football player who embraces contact. My favorite part about his game is that his feet rarely “settle” but he’s always on balance, allowing him to break down the field with a receiver or break up to make a play on the ball. It’s impressive to watch his footwork really and below is the proof on his highlight tape from 2012.