CALDWELL — Isaiah Griffin came to the College of Idaho football team last fall and was identified by coach Mike Moroski in the preseason as a freshman who had the potential to have a breakout year for the Yotes.
Early in the season, the Coeur d’Alene High graduate was able to get into the Yotes rotation in the defensive backfield, recording seven tackles in the three games of the College of Idaho’s first four games of the season. But after recording two solo tackles in the Yotes 41-0 victory against Eastern Oregon the rest of the season, Griffin didn’t appear in another game.
While a sprained ankle afflicted him early in the year, Griffin said this week that wasn’t the reason he missed the Yotes’ final six games of the season. Ultimately, he said, it was so he could focus on a position change to help the Yotes in the future.
“I was going through a position change from cornerback to safety,” Griffin said. “Having to learn everything there on top of everything with corner, they didn’t want me going in there and making any mistakes late in the season.”
Now with a season of learning the new position under his belt, Griffin will once again look to have a breakout season for the Yotes in the fall. He is playing in as a boundary safety in spring practice and is someone who Moroski is once again high on for the upcoming season.
“He’s a very good tackler and he’s very smart,” said Moroski. “If you understand the boundary corner, now you have a chance to understand the boundary safety. There’s just a lot that happens. He’s smart, he’s into it and it seems his skill set fits better at safety in terms of the tackling. Our defense is designed for safety to make tackles.”
Griffin said he had never played safety in a game situation before, but sometimes during seven-on-seven camps in high school, he would be slotted in the safety position. With the Yotes using five defensive backs in their defensive formation, Moroski and Chris Jewell like to make sure that all their defensive backs know all five of those positions.
The more the coaches saw Griffin play in the safety position, the more they liked what they saw.
“I think they wanted me in the box a little more,” said Griffin. “I’m kind of shorter, with a bigger body, so it’s better with the run fit.”
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Yotes fans got a little bit of a sneak peak of what he could do early in the season. He had a third quarter tackle in the first game of the season against Montana State-Northern. The next week, in a 21-18 win at Rocky Mountain, Griffin was tied for fifth on the team, making four tackles, including three solo tackles. In the second quarter, he teamed with Hunter Eborn to stuff a Battlin’ Bears running back in the backfield for a loss of four yards.
“My first game, I remember, I was super nervous,” Griffin said. “It was my first game playing collegiate football. But after that, it came to me a little bit more, it was a little bit easier. So, it felt good to go out there and contribute to the team.”
That made it a little disappointing, he admits, when he didn’t see the field again during his first season in Caldwell after a two-tackle day against Southern Oregon. It was especially hard, he said, on game days, feeling like he could be out there helping the Yotes.
But he got some perspective through some long talks with his father, who pointed out that he was learning a new position and that if he put his focus into that, it would work out better in the long term.
“It’s very difficult for young guys sometimes,” Moroski said. “They’re expectations for playing time may be way more. But hats off to Griffin, he has the right attitude and is more determined than ever, which is what we want.”
Griffin said he also has one more advantage this season that he didn’t have last year: A full spring to really learn the ins and outs of the safety position and the Yotes defense as a whole. Last spring, he was still finishing his senior year at Coeur d’Alene High. Transitioning into a college football player was a bit of a learning curve last fall he admits.
Having to learn the safety position on top of that was just one more obstacle.
But it’s a move he said has been beneficial for him, as he feels like he will be ready to
“I feel more free playing safety,” Griffin said. “You just kind of run around.”
