The Fort Wayne receiver pipeline to the Indiana football program will continue with the commitment of Homestead senior Isaac Griffith to the Hoosiers.
Griffith caught 60 passes for 1,122 yards and 22 touchdowns last season, earning an offer from Indiana over the weekend, and Monday became IU’s first 2013 football commitment.
“It felt like it was the right thing to do,” Griffith said. “I had a gut feeling that it was the place I wanted to be. It was mostly the coaching staff, and the way I felt when I was there.”
Griffith will join James Hardy (Elmhurst), Damarlo Belcher (North Side) and Dre Muhammad (Harding) as recent prep stars from the Summit City catching passes for the Hoosiers.
The 6-foot, 180-pound Griffith said the Fort Wayne connection did have a part in his recruiting.
He has worked out with Belcher and Muhammad, and he spent time with current IU defensive backs and former Bishop Luers standouts Kenny Mullen and Lawrence Barnett during an unofficial visit to Bloomington in January.
“They told me all about the program and where it was headed,” Griffith said. “They always talked about how good of a place it was.”
Griffith, who also had offers from Ball State, Kent State, Toledo, Miami of Ohio and Wyoming, is the son of Manchester College football coach and former Northrop standout Shannon Griffith.
“There were times I was waiting for a Big Ten school to jump, and I was getting impatient. He said to wait and my time would come,” Griffith said of his father. “When IU did pull the trigger, he knew it but the misconception is he helped me a lot but he told me ‘I didn’t get you those offers, you did that.’ ”
Griffith mainly played quarterback but was moved to receiver as the Spartans already had the recently graduated Zach Terrell, who earned a scholarship to Western Michigan. He already holds several single-season and career receiving school records. Shannon Griffith spent four years as the receivers coach at Ball State in the early 2000s.
“When they come up to me and ask me to move to receiver, I didn’t have to transition into it,” said Griffith, who could move back to quarterback for his senior season.
“I was out there running the routes, and it paid off. Wherever (the Homestead coaches) tell me to go, that’s where I will go. I want to win, and I don’t care where I am at.”
