November 06, 2026 | Football, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Elijah Griffin wasn't all that interested in football when he first started playing.
"I really just wanted to sit home and play video games, to be honest with you," said the 6-foot-4, 310-pound defensive lineman from Pooler, Ga., near Savannah. "I was into LEGO Batman, LEGO Star Wars, any LEGO game, WWE, you name it."
It wasn't until he was in seventh grade that Griffin really got into football.
"That's when I really started to feel a love for it and just transcend it," said Griffin, who went on to be a five-star recruit and the No. 2-ranked prospect in the country.
Griffin really started to blossom as a player as a ninth- or 10th-grader at Savannah Christian. And a lot of that came from believing in himself.
"I started to get more confidence in how I played, and people started seeing stuff in me — and I started seeing stuff in myself," said Griffin, who arrived at Georgia in January 2025.
As a freshman last season, Griffin played in all 14 games as a reserve, finishing with 22 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, a sack and 14 quarterback pressures. He's had a much larger role this fall.
One of eight defensive players to start every game this season, Griffin comes into Saturday night's big game at No. 10 Ole Miss with 12 tackles and two sacks, including one in Georgia's 27-8 win over No. 24 Florida last Saturday. In that game, the Bulldog defense shut down one of the top running backs in the country, Jaden Baugh. He came in averaging 109 rushing yards per game, but Georgia held him to 38 yards on 17 carries and limited the Gators to 54 yards on 28 attempts.
Ole Miss ranks ninth in the SEC in rushing at 157.50 yards per game (Georgia is third at 200.1), and Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart always believes in stopping the run first. As he said after the Florida win, "I think anybody will tell you, if you can't run the ball, and they struggled to run it, it makes you one-dimensional, and then everybody gets to feast and rush the passer."
Passing is what Ole Miss does best. Standout quarterback Trinidad Chambliss leads the SEC with 273.6 passing yards per game, and he has a league-best 18 passing touchdowns. While Chambliss can scramble out of pressure about as well as anyone in the country, making "Wow plays," as Smart called them Monday, that's not what impressed Smart the most.
"It's the down-in, down-out decision-making that he's really elite at. The accuracy that he's elite at, the release, the decision. His pinpointing," Smart said. "He has an anticipation of windows that's probably unmatched. I don't know if that was God-given or the fact that he played a lot of football before he got to Ole Miss. He has played a lot of football, and experience helps. You throw all that in, and you have a tremendous athlete. He goes forwards, backwards as fast as he goes sideways. He can back up and go for it. He's just a great athlete that is a great quarterback."
Georgia's defense is holding opponents to an SEC-low 14.9 points per game, and the Bulldogs' defense has sacked the quarterback 26 times, third-most in the conference. Griffin loves to get after the quarterback, but he also loves the physicality of football.
"I seek contact; I don't run away from it," he said.
Georgia tight end Elyiss Williams, no small man himself at 6-7 and 255 pounds, said Griffin's size and strength make him difficult to deal with.
"He is pretty tough, I ain't gonna lie; he's pretty, pretty big," Williams said.
As much as he likes playing football, Griffin enjoys being a part of the team as much or more. It's a unique experience, one that even less than halfway through his collegiate career he's taking time to appreciate.
"It's the brotherhood, camaraderie, all the memories you make with your brothers. Not even on the football field, but outside of it, in just regular life," he said. "You know, it's crazy how time's flying by. I was just a freshman last year, and now we're already at game nine in my sophomore year, so time is just flying. I'm definitely taking in these moments as they come."
As a freshman, Griffin said he relied more on his physical abilities to make plays and help the defense. Now, he has a much better understanding of the game and how to play it the way Georgia's coaches want it played.
"It's just understanding the scheme and what we do on defense better, being a smarter player. I feel like last year, I knew the playbook, but I didn't really understand or grasp it well enough. Just the way I play the game now, striking blockers and stuff like that, it's much different than freshman year."
Is he expecting a similar jump next season?
"There has to be," he said. "I feel like in order to be a good player, you just have to transcend each year."
He's come a long way from a kid who would prefer to play LEGO Batman over strapping on a helmet and chasing after the quarterback or stopping a running back for a two-yard loss.
Staff Writer
Elijah Griffin wasn't all that interested in football when he first started playing.
"I really just wanted to sit home and play video games, to be honest with you," said the 6-foot-4, 310-pound defensive lineman from Pooler, Ga., near Savannah. "I was into LEGO Batman, LEGO Star Wars, any LEGO game, WWE, you name it."
It wasn't until he was in seventh grade that Griffin really got into football.
"That's when I really started to feel a love for it and just transcend it," said Griffin, who went on to be a five-star recruit and the No. 2-ranked prospect in the country.
Griffin really started to blossom as a player as a ninth- or 10th-grader at Savannah Christian. And a lot of that came from believing in himself.
"I started to get more confidence in how I played, and people started seeing stuff in me — and I started seeing stuff in myself," said Griffin, who arrived at Georgia in January 2025.
As a freshman last season, Griffin played in all 14 games as a reserve, finishing with 22 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, a sack and 14 quarterback pressures. He's had a much larger role this fall.
One of eight defensive players to start every game this season, Griffin comes into Saturday night's big game at No. 10 Ole Miss with 12 tackles and two sacks, including one in Georgia's 27-8 win over No. 24 Florida last Saturday. In that game, the Bulldog defense shut down one of the top running backs in the country, Jaden Baugh. He came in averaging 109 rushing yards per game, but Georgia held him to 38 yards on 17 carries and limited the Gators to 54 yards on 28 attempts.
Ole Miss ranks ninth in the SEC in rushing at 157.50 yards per game (Georgia is third at 200.1), and Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart always believes in stopping the run first. As he said after the Florida win, "I think anybody will tell you, if you can't run the ball, and they struggled to run it, it makes you one-dimensional, and then everybody gets to feast and rush the passer."
Passing is what Ole Miss does best. Standout quarterback Trinidad Chambliss leads the SEC with 273.6 passing yards per game, and he has a league-best 18 passing touchdowns. While Chambliss can scramble out of pressure about as well as anyone in the country, making "Wow plays," as Smart called them Monday, that's not what impressed Smart the most.
"It's the down-in, down-out decision-making that he's really elite at. The accuracy that he's elite at, the release, the decision. His pinpointing," Smart said. "He has an anticipation of windows that's probably unmatched. I don't know if that was God-given or the fact that he played a lot of football before he got to Ole Miss. He has played a lot of football, and experience helps. You throw all that in, and you have a tremendous athlete. He goes forwards, backwards as fast as he goes sideways. He can back up and go for it. He's just a great athlete that is a great quarterback."
Georgia's defense is holding opponents to an SEC-low 14.9 points per game, and the Bulldogs' defense has sacked the quarterback 26 times, third-most in the conference. Griffin loves to get after the quarterback, but he also loves the physicality of football.
"I seek contact; I don't run away from it," he said.
Georgia tight end Elyiss Williams, no small man himself at 6-7 and 255 pounds, said Griffin's size and strength make him difficult to deal with.
"He is pretty tough, I ain't gonna lie; he's pretty, pretty big," Williams said.
As much as he likes playing football, Griffin enjoys being a part of the team as much or more. It's a unique experience, one that even less than halfway through his collegiate career he's taking time to appreciate.
"It's the brotherhood, camaraderie, all the memories you make with your brothers. Not even on the football field, but outside of it, in just regular life," he said. "You know, it's crazy how time's flying by. I was just a freshman last year, and now we're already at game nine in my sophomore year, so time is just flying. I'm definitely taking in these moments as they come."
As a freshman, Griffin said he relied more on his physical abilities to make plays and help the defense. Now, he has a much better understanding of the game and how to play it the way Georgia's coaches want it played.
"It's just understanding the scheme and what we do on defense better, being a smarter player. I feel like last year, I knew the playbook, but I didn't really understand or grasp it well enough. Just the way I play the game now, striking blockers and stuff like that, it's much different than freshman year."
Is he expecting a similar jump next season?
"There has to be," he said. "I feel like in order to be a good player, you just have to transcend each year."
He's come a long way from a kid who would prefer to play LEGO Batman over strapping on a helmet and chasing after the quarterback or stopping a running back for a two-yard loss.
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.
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