Mitch Griffis the latest very different Wake Forest quarterback to pilot the same WF offense

Mitch Griffis is old enough to be entering his fourth year at Wake Forest and young enough not to have seen “Tommy Boy.” So if you tell him that “A lot of people go to college for seven years – they’re called doctors,” he laughs as if he’s hearing that for the first time, which he is.

Still only a sophomore, he’s also been there long enough to understand the mantle he now inherits as the Demon Deacons’ starter, not counting the opener he started last year while Sam Hartman was out. When he’s under center against Elon on Aug. 31, this time Griffis won’t be keeping the seat warm for anyone else.

Griffis is a different kind of quarterback from Hartman, who was a different kind of quarterback from Jamie Newman, who was a different kind of quarterback from Kendall Hinton, who was a different kind of quarterback from John Wolford, and yet they’ve all had success in Dave Clawson’s system. Runners, throwers, big, small, on-the-run improvisers and in-pocket organizers, Wake has won with every combination.

It’s possible that of all the improbable things Clawson’s staff has pulled off in Winston-Salem since coming to Wake in 2014, longtime offensive coordinator Warren Ruggiero’s ability to reconfigure the offense to properly capitalize on the individual strengths of very different quarterbacks is the most impressive or the most significant or both.

There’s no prototype, no template, sometimes very little common ground. It’s almost impossible to draw a line between some of them. They’re not all top-10 recruits destined for success. And yet if they can master the intricacies of Wake’s famous slow mesh – the quarterback holds the ball in the running back’s belly long enough to diagnose the defense, then makes the run-pass decision – they all seem to thrive when handed the keys.

“(Ruggiero) has a great way of tweaking the offense that it doesn’t really appear to be different but it subtly is,” Clawson said. “And he does it in a way to really maximize the strengths of our players. The way we ran the offense with John or Jamie Newman or Kendall Hinton or Sam Hartman, same formations, same type of plays, but just little tweaks that would emphasize their skill sets. We ran Jamie a lot more than we ran Sam. We ran John more than Sam but in a different way than we ran Jamie. It’s really saying, ‘OK, these are a quarterback’s strengths, let’s play with their fastball.’”

Of all his predecessors, the 5-foot-11 Griffis feels the most kinship with Wolford, who took an absolute beating as a freshman behind a cheesecloth offensive line in Clawson’s first season before throwing for more than 3,000 yards and 29 touchdowns as a senior. Wolford was an undersized gamer who went on to a successful career as an NFL understudy, including a Super Bowl win with the Los Angeles Rams.

Griffis has taken careful notes on Wolford’s play, like how he used his body to position himself to make throws in the offense, or the footwork and timing that made Wolford such an accurate quarterback. There’s more he can learn from that than he did from Hartman, who was just a bigger body than Griffis. He’s also been able to pick Wolford’s brain directly, as the two now carry on a running quarterbacking conversation.

Griffis even went back and watched some of Wolford’s freshman-year tape: Wolford is as famous now for blogging about the surprisingly busy life of an NFL backup and all the mental and physical preparation that go into the job on a daily basis – lessons from which Griffis has also found a way to benefit.

“I’ll be honest, I read it, and it sounds a lot like my day-to-day life,” Griffis said. “I try to do as much as I can to prepare for a game. He does some more stuff just because he’s got more time. He’s not taking classes. But for the main part, yeah, it sounded a lot like my day. I appreciated he wrote that. I actually sent it to my girlfriend and said, ‘I’m not lying to you. I really am this busy in the fall.’ She laughed about it. She understood.”

Griffis even went back and watched some of Wolford’s freshman-year tape, frightening as it was for a quarterback to see one of his brethren – someone who has become a mentor – suffer like that.

“It’s not great football. He crawled so we could run,” Griffis said. “He crawled so other guys could walk and now we can run.”

It’s mostly a joke – like Griffis’ opportunity to pursue a medical degree at Wake Forest – but there’s a ton of truth in it. Six years after Wolford played at Wake Forest, his successor’s successor’s successor is still learning from him. And Griffis’ successor’s successor might not even be in high school yet, but whoever he is, and whatever kind of quarterback he is, history would suggest Wake Forest will have an offense retooled for him, but recognizable to all who played the position before.

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