{"id":49239,"date":"2023-07-30T15:00:44","date_gmt":"2023-07-30T19:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=49239"},"modified":"2023-07-30T07:44:42","modified_gmt":"2023-07-30T11:44:42","slug":"49239-the-wake-forest-spotlight-shines-on-mitch-griffis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/07\/30\/49239-the-wake-forest-spotlight-shines-on-mitch-griffis\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wake Forest Spotlight Shines on Mitch Griffis"},"content":{"rendered":"

After what felt to some like a lifetime with Sam Hartman<\/strong> leading the Demon Deacons offense, the Wake Forest spotlight shines on Mitch Griffis<\/a> for the 2023 season. The differences are clear now but may become even more stark in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n

Griffis was one of the three Wake Forest player representatives at ACC media days last week<\/a>. It\u2019s a role previously played by Hartman. It\u2019s common for most teams to have QB1 as the face of the program. The similarities between Wake Forest then and Wake Forest now end there.<\/p>\n

A Different Vibe<\/h3>\n

Hartman looked like the part of the experienced veteran. He had a full beard, numerous tattoos, a confident swagger, and a demeanor that said he understood the obligation that went with being QB1. He was mostly tolerant of the media if not always willing to handle the task at hand.<\/p>\n

Commence the Griffis era. He is in his fourth year at Wake Forest, and he has patiently been waiting his turn. His youthful appearance says he could have just as easily been spending that time working at a small community malt shop. He is confident in answering questions from the media but does so with a grin that says he is just happy people are asking him the questions.<\/p>\n

Griffis has one career start at Wake. Following Hartman\u2019s emergency surgery halfway through Fall training camp last year, Griffis stepped in as the starter for the season opener against VMI. He went 21 of 29 throwing for 288 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. It was impressive, but let\u2019s be real. It was VMI. He appeared in mop-up duty three more times in 2023, including the loss at Louisville where Hartman\u2019s season unraveled.<\/p>\n

Job Security<\/h3>\n

At ACC Kickoff, he was reminded that this is not just about playing football. It is now his offense to run, and he is the face of the program as QB1, there was not one bit of unease in his response. \u201cIt’s not daunting. It’s an awesome experience. And it’s a blessing to be here. It’s a dream come true. That’s how I treat it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an era where quarterbacks quickly do the paperwork for the transfer portal when they have to sit for a season, Griffis has more than put in his time. \u201cIn terms of playing time, it was hard to wait. I’m a competitor. I wanted to play. I wish I could have played earlier, but again, there was no other group of guys I wanted to play with. It was well worth the wait, and I still have three years left, so my career is just getting started,\u201d Griffis said.<\/p>\n

He was also gratified when head coach Dave Clawson<\/strong> gave him reassurances after Spring camp that there would be no portal shopping for the Demon Deacons. Griffis was his guy.<\/p>\n

New Responsibilities<\/h3>\n

He is convinced he has worked every day for this opportunity. \u201cUp to this point in the off-season, I have worked the hardest I can,\u201d he said last week. \u201cI\u2019ve maximized my skills up to today. There is still room for me to get better as the days go on. But I think the room for me to grow the most is just through experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the experiences are the outside commitments that come with being the newly ordained team leader. \u201cGoing through media day, doing more interviews after practice. Kind of outside of the building things have picked up for me. But in the building, it\u2019s been the exact same,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I came to campus as a freshman, I knew I was going to be a starting quarterback one day. And I\u2019ve prepared every single day like I was a starter. So my preparation really hasn\u2019t changed much.\u201d<\/p>\n

He gets the standard Wake Forest opener against an FCS team, as the Demon Deacons host Elon on August 31st<\/sup>. But the schedule is full of challenges once the out-of-conference games are out of the way. There is Clemson and Virginia Tech on the road as well as home games against Pitt and Florida State.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That Guy On The Other Sideline Looks Familiar<\/h3>\n

And then there is that <\/em>game. We asked Griffis, with the premise that he is supposed to say he just takes it all one game at a time, if he had a reaction when he saw the game scheduled for November 18th<\/sup>. We hadn\u2019t even finished asking the question when he started grinning. He knew where we were going with the question. \u201cI\u2019m not going to sit here and lie and say I\u2019m not interested in that game,\u201d he said about playing Notre Dame, and its new quarterback, Sam Hartman. \u201cI think everybody in our program is really excited for that game. I\u2019ll tell you what, he wants to kick our tail too. It\u2019s a mutual competitiveness, a mutual respect obviously,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cSam did amazing things for five years for our program. I can\u2019t thank him enough as a mentor and as a friend. I\u2019m always rooting for him. I hope they go 11-1,\u201d he finished with a wry grin.<\/p>\n

Training camp opens Monday with six practices scheduled in the first week.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Wake<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy: \u00a0Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After what felt to some like a lifetime with Sam Hartman leading the Demon Deacons offense, the Wake Forest spotlight shines on Mitch Griffis for the 2023 season. The differences are clear now but may become even more stark in the weeks ahead. Griffis was one of the three Wake Forest player representatives at ACC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":49241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[10234,1135,4207,1249],"class_list":["post-49239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-acc","tag-2023-acc-football","tag-dave-clawson","tag-sam-hartman","tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}