Notre Dame football: Irish could land huge steal in Houston Griffith

Landing four-star recruit Houston Griffith could be a game-changer for Notre Dame football.

Florida State’s recruiting loss just might become a recruiting gain for Notre Dame.

Amid the turmoil revolving around Jimbo Fisher’s status at Florida State, four-star defensive back Houston Griffith (Bradenton, Fl., ’18) de-committed from the Seminoles yesterday, setting the recruiting world abuzz.

Interestingly, guess what school he was visiting before he made that announcement? Notre Dame.

As such, the Irish have just become the favorites to land the star DB, which could help keep morale up after their bitter finish to this season.

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Griffith, a top-100 player and Army All-American, would be a huge steal for Notre Dame if they manage to seal the deal. In fact, he’d be the highest-ranked player in their recruiting class right now at 60th nationally (9th overall corner).

Now that would be sending a message if Notre Dame could sway him to come their way.

Boosting the back end

Though he played corner in high school, Griffith has the size at 6’1”, 198 pounds to play safety, a spot that Notre Dame could use playmakers at.

Aside from just being a good athlete, Griffith plays aggressive, physical coverage, which would obviously serve him well whether he plays deep or on the outside. He can play the ball in the air at its highest point, getting up high to contest catches. And he’s good around the line of scrimmage, too, which could be useful if he’s deployed as a box safety.

And some of the hits he lays down? Yikes.

Plus, if he were to commit to and stick with Notre Dame, he’d be joining another top-100 player and All-American in this year’s recruiting defensive backfield in Derrik Allen (Marietta, Ga., ’18). And Allen was already hitting the recruiting button after seeing Griffith had opened his recruitment back up.

Also, in case you’re not familiar with Allen, you should get on that. He’s already getting props as perhaps the best safety prospect to commit to Notre Dame since Harrison Smith. Yeah, Minnesota Vikings Pro Bowl safety Harrison Smith.

And…let me just drop this in here for you:

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Imagine having these couple of guys patrolling the back end of your defense, Irish fans.

I thoroughly expect Allen to be in Griffith’s ear when they head down to the Alamodome trying to get him to pick Notre Dame. With any luck, the allure of helping lead a defensive resurgence for the Irish program will be too good for Griffith to pass up.