This Intel representative from Sentell continued Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 5-star DT Elijah Griffin. He is ranked the nation’s No. 1 DT in the 247Sports Composite and the No. 4 prospect for 2025. He is the No. 1 DT in the On3 Industry Rankings and No. 6 overall.

Savannah Christian Preparatory head coach Baker Woodward has been at the school for seven years. He arrived at the exact same destination as future 5-star Elijah Griffin when he was in sixth grade.

That’s a long time considering he will now enroll at UGA early in January.

Griffin received his first offer from Georgia football in September of his eighth grade year. With these extended deadlines, it’s safe to assume there will be some crazy stories.

Plus some #$%* stories.

As it turned out, there were plenty of them.

There was a good case a few years ago when an SEC recruiter took one look at Griffin and made a pretty interesting statement.

The point was that Griffin was already crushing the eyeball test like Shohei was crushing belt-high fastballs.

“I don’t remember school,” Wooward said. “He would say, ‘Coach, he would be the best-looking D-lineman we have on our team right now. Now.”

“Do you mean that seriously?” Woodward replied.

“No,” said this coach. “Seriously.”

“Okay,” Woodward said.

It’s not just this one coach.

“Several people have said that,” Woodward said. “It was said that he would be one of the best looking DLs on their team now. They say, “Right now our defensive line guys don’t look like that in terms of body and build.”

Then there would be times when the coaches could come and visit him. You would see him in the walls, in the weight rooms, or in the hallways.

We feel compelled to remember that Savannah Christian is indeed a parochial school. Woodward said the faculty’s mission is to “prepare children for real life, honoring God and developing the glory of God every school day.”

That’s kind of what college coaches remember when they come to see him.

This initial reaction was often a whole series of the following.

“Beep beep.”

“I’ve never seen a child that big at this age.”

“#$%*”

“Another grandma will wash your mouth out here with the whole line of soap.”

Then Woodward has to step in.

“Hey, you can’t talk like that in here,” he’ll say.

It shows what a special future Griffin is. These are the men who scour the nation every day of their lives looking for players of his caliber.

But then they see him.

“We are a Christian school,” Woodward said. “We don’t use language, but I’ve heard some language.”

That makes it a 5 star hotel.

“It’s just how tall and broad this kid is,” Woodward said. “Then you can’t run at him. If you run away from him, he will destroy you. When you get the ball out of your hands and the wide receiver is waiting on the outside blocks, he runs down the line of scrimmage and makes the tackle on you. That’s what separates him from someone who is 6 feet tall, weighs 300 pounds and can run under 5 feet in the 40.”

“This is just scary.”

The young man with a name from the Old Testament feels like an Old Testament recruit. It feels like it’s been so long in terms of recruiting since he was first offered by UGA.

That eighth grade offer came while he was still on the middle school team. He went straight from middle school football to varsity. There were no representatives from the freshman or junior varsity team there.

It made sense. Griffin was already over 6 feet tall when he was in sixth grade. He was 1.90 meters tall in eighth grade and was already moving very quickly.

“Runs like a 4.9,” Woodward said. “I play well over 200 pounds. It was like this child was still growing.”

UGA was his first offer. Penn State came with his second scholarship offer. That was a year later, when he was just 14 years old and already weighed 280 pounds.

“Then his ninth grade film came along, like almost all the offers he got,” Woodward said. “In the end everyone offered him. If they didn’t offer it, it was because they didn’t know about him. Or it’s because they knew they wouldn’t get him.”

There’s a lot of good stuff in here. But that’s the one thing Woodward wants people to take away from all the stories about Griffin today.

“I think the most important thing I want everyone to take away is that they made the decision to come to Savannah Christian,” Woodward said. “He made the decision to join this football program and this school and he has never regretted it. He never doubted himself. He knew he took the time to make the right decision and he never looked back.”

“When he got here, he wasn’t just content with going to our training and practices and just doing our homework for our school. He also went to the extra trouble of getting a trainer. He took advantage of everything our school offered and then used all the outside forces to make him the best version of himself. He wasn’t happy. That goes against human nature, right? As humans, as soon as we get things, we want to take some time off. We want to take off and rest. Well, he didn’t. He continued to fight and our guys on our team see that. One of our team’s greatest honors is being elected team captain, and he has been elected team captain two years in a row.”

“He is not satisfied with mediocrity. There’s one of the best things you can say about him.”

There is a reason for all of this. It all started at home.

5-star DT Elijah Griffin publicly expressed his commitment to Georgia at a school ceremony at Savannah Christian in Savannah, Georgia on Friday, October 18, 2024. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

5-star DT Elijah Griffin publicly expressed his commitment to Georgia at a school ceremony at Savannah Christian in Savannah, Georgia on Friday, October 18, 2024. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

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Elijah Griffin: The family behind the 5-star hotel

Woodward also said a lot with one simple statement about Griffin.

“He’s probably one of the most mature kids I’ve ever met. That too is just a testament to his family and the people who raised him.”

It’s not just because his mother is now a police officer in her community. It’s because of everything she’s done, from getting pregnant with him during her high school years to now.

“She worked too hard not to be great,” Griffin told AJC Sports this summer. “She sacrificed a lot for me just to be in the position I am. I mean, that’s my mother. I love her more than anything.”

Mothers and football. The bond with her sons is always deep and still exists. But there’s something else special about Team Griffin.

When the 5-star hotel guest says his mother “sacrificed” for him, he means it.

“Got me when I was 17,” Griffin said. “The age I am right now. I mean, imagine having a child at 17? It costs a lot and it means a lot to her to do it on her own and she put in a lot of effort. She’s still doing it (working her tail off). So you know I love her more than anything. That’s my why.”

Woodward noticed this.

“She cared about him a lot,” Woodward said. “She put things aside. When you are that young, you want to start your career. You want to start your career. But you have a mouth to fill. You have someone to love, that is your responsibility. She succeeded brilliantly. She has been very successful in her career while raising a great young man.”

“At the same time, she also gave him the tools she needs to be independent when she can’t be there. She did a really good job.”

It showed every day Woodward saw him for the last six years.

“I remember picking him up at 5:30 p.m. because we had practice at 6 a.m.,” Woodward said. “And the boy already got a Tupperware with two scrambled eggs. Some bacon. He got up, his mother was still at work, he got up and made his own breakfast. How many 14, 15 year old kids can do that when their mother isn’t home.”

“So his mother raised him well, but she also gave him the independence to grow into a man. She did a great job with him.”

In addition to his grandmother Edna, there was also a godmother who played an important role in his life.

We must not forget his grandmother Edna.

“She is one of the most elegant women I have ever met,” Woodward said. “She did a great job. They both did a great job with him.”

5-star DT Elijah Griffin is now ready to announce his college decision this week. On the occasion of his birthday on the weekend of October 12, 2024, he made an official visit to Georgia to attend the Mississippi State game. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

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Elijah Griffin: How his stats could be much better

Griffin stared at the first snap of his freshman year. As a result, he was able to accumulate 282 tackles, 86 TFLs and 41.5 sacks in his college career.

The funny thing is that these statistics could be much better.

“Without a doubt he would have great statistical games if we played guys who played like they did in college or in the NFL,” Woodward said. “In the NFL you’re constantly falling behind. Throw the ball. Outdoor area. Things like that. You fall behind in college. He would probably lead the country in sacks if he played against teams that did that.”

“People know we have the best D-line in the state. So you don’t fall behind. They throw the ball as fast as they can. Or they try to read us or lure us into a trap. That’s why you don’t see those crazy stats with him. He will still have five tackles in a game, although from a defensive tackle perspective, four tackles means a loss.

Griffin either played a three-technique or lined up on the nose.

“You don’t see defensive linemen in the NFL who typically have five tackles and three tackles for a loss,” Woodward said. “You can see how good he is when we play against teams that try to throw more. All he’s getting right now is double teams. He gets read, he gets trapped, and he still comes away with really good stats. Then when we win, which we’ve done a lot of times in the last few games, he doesn’t even play four quarters.”

“You don’t see him with a big stat line until we get into those hard-fought four-quarter games.”

5-star DT Elijah Griffin has made his college decision. (Photo illustration by Cayce Dunn/DawgNation) (Cayce Dunn/Dawgnation)

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