Five star defensive lineman Elijah Griffin revealed his top three. The Miami Hurricanes made the cut along with Georgia and USC. Can Miami land the top defensive lineman in the class of 2025?
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00:00as Brian Smith joins us, our recruiting expert here on the Lockdown Network.
00:03So Elijah Griffin dropped his top three finalists last night, Brian, and Miami made the cut.
00:10Georgia, USC, and Miami. Do the Hurricanes have a realistic shot here,
00:17or is it Georgia Bulldogs or bust? I mean, everybody's picking Georgia,
00:22but there's two things with this. Number one, name a year that Miami hasn't surprised somebody
00:27with a kid they got since Mario's been here, and he's done it multiple times in classes.
00:32And two, if he is as dead set on Georgia's, I've been told, why hasn't he just committed?
00:39I mean, it's an easy pick. I understand. I mean, he's in Georgia. He's a defense. I get it.
00:44Why hasn't he just committed? So at this point, I think we're far enough along to think that
00:48if you're on the list, you're an option. So NIL will play a role in all that stuff,
00:54but all these schools are good. He's going to look at development. This is a kid that legitimately
00:59should think of himself as a future NFL player. He's elite. He's been on the radar since his
01:04eighth grade year. He's a very unique football player physically. I think Miami and USC should
01:09look at it like we're in it to win. That's how I view it. Yeah. And so you talk about when is
01:16he going to announce? It sounds like the soonest that that could happen is October 12th, which is
01:20his birthday. He had mentioned he had kind of talked about probably waiting till December to
01:26announce, so around National Signing Day, but then he did tell on three sports that he might do it as
01:32soon as October 12th. As far as the visits go, Brian, he's been, to my knowledge, he's been down
01:37to Miami twice. Elijah Griffin made an unofficial visit back in March during spring football. He
01:42made the official visit to Miami on the weekend of June 7th. The other OV that he took in June
01:48was to USC on June 21st. And Brian, he still hasn't used that OV to Georgia yet, so I would
01:54assume he's saving that for sometime during the fall. So that could be another advantage for
01:59Georgia, that they may get the last official visit with him before he makes an announcement.
02:05That's the feather in the cap. And Georgia knew they were the leader in the clubhouse,
02:11they probably did that. I spoke to somebody that knows him recently, and they thought that he would
02:17make a signing day decision, you know, for whatever that's worth. Does that mean he's
02:23committed somewhere and he's still looking around? That's my guess. He may commit to try to get
02:28people to leave him alone, but I always thought that's something that kids do. I've had those
02:34conversations, but I get it. At the same time, he's too good for SC or Miami to care. And it's
02:41not like somebody else like South Carolina who was in on him early is going to stop recruiting him
02:44either. So I look at it like Miami just has to go all the way through signing day. If you don't
02:51get him, you don't get him. You're playing with house money here. And he's an elite player,
02:56so you got to recruit him.