The commit party continued on in Lubbock, TX with an under-the-radar yet key addition in former Wake Forest quarterback Mitch Griffis.
Griffis had arrived for his official visit at Texas Tech on Friday and publicly announced his commitment on Tuesday morning. An existing relationship with Texas Tech offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich gave the Red Raiders an in and Griffis saw all he needed to in order to announce for the Red Raiders.
Griffis transferred from Wake Forest to Marshall following the 2023 season, but decided he would be stepping away from the game in June, 2024. He did not play during the 2024 season.
In 2023 while at Wake Forest, Griffis saw his most extensive action to date, going 124/207 (59.9%) for 1,553 passing yards, 9 touchdown passes to 7 interceptions. For his career he has 15 touchdown passes to 8 interceptions, all at Wake Forest.
"Yeah, coach (Mack) Leftwich reached out to me. We had a previous relationship and when he got the job he just reached out to me and said he was interested in what I could help the team with and the role that I could serve the team with. So he reached out to me, we got on a phone call and scheduled the visit.
When he was at Texas State he recruited me out of the portal last year a little bit. We had a few conversations so that's how we were familiar with each other."
Though Griffis played at an ACC program in Wake Forest, he was still impressed by Texas Tech's new football facilities as well as the people inside the building.
"The facilities are amazing. We had awesome facilities at Wake but these are incredible. I've never seen anything like this, this is unbelievable. Those are all cool but the thing that matters most is the people. I think the people always make the place and I could just tell that the energy and the relationships that these people have with each other and how genuine they were and how much they cared about me as a person and spending time with me, I just felt that it was a special place because of the special people that were here."
Griffis will join a quarterback room at Texas Tech that currently houses Behren Morton, Will Hammond and Lloyd Jones III. Morton and Jones III will be down for spring football due to injuries, which will allow Griffis plenty of reps to get comfortable in offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich's system. 2024 reserves Jake Strong and Cameran Brown have both entered the transfer portal since the regular season ended.
"Just come in and compete", says Griffis on how he plans to fit into the quarterback room at Texas Tech. "Work as hard as I can and just do whatever the team needs, whatever that may be. Just work my hardest and be a good teammate and just whatever I can do to help the team win."
A veteran with 10 career starts at Wake Forest, Griffis says Texas Tech fans should expect a competitor and winner who puts it all on the line for the team.
"Just a competitor. I love playing football and I love to win and I'll do anything for my teammates. Put my body on the line and whatever I gotta do to help the team win in whatever role that may be. Just someone that loves football and is gonna work hard and do my best to make sure this program has success. Do whatever I can that the team needs."
Griffis also enjoyed spending time around the other quarterbacks while on his visit.
"I got to spend some time with the quarterbacks and they're great guys. They're super talented and just some really good dudes that I got to spend some time with so I appreciate them being so kind and having conversations with me. I really enjoyed meeting those guys."
Griffis says his team goals for his time at Texas Tech are to "win the Big 12 and then hopefully make a Playoff run. My personal goal is to just come in here and work my tail off every single day, be one of the hardest workers on the team and whatever the team needs me to do is what I'll do."
Griffis is the ninth transfer portal commitment for Texas Tech, and he says it's exciting seeing his future team add so much talent around him.
"Yeah, it's been cool. As a program we've gotten some really good players the last few days and I'm just excited to join the program. I'm just super blessed and super thankful to have this opportunity. My role is to just come in here and help the team win in any way that I can. Whatever the team needs from me, I'm gonna do it 110%. So it's been awesome being a part of this weekend with a lot of new commits and I'm just so thankful to be a part of such a great program and hoping I can do whatever I can."
Coming out of Ashburn (VA) Broad Run high school as part of the 2020 class, Griffis was ranked as a Rivals 5.6 three-star prospect who chose Wake Forest over Appalachian State, Louisville, Maryland, North Carolina, Vanderbilt, West Virginia and others.
He is expected to arrive in Lubbock with one season of eligibility remaining, though there's a possibility he gets a second year back from sitting out the 2024 season.
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