Griffin shuffles visits

Oakland (Calif.) McClymonds running back Willie Griffin was expected to have a huge senior season after sharing time in the backfield with two other backs last season. He had a huge first game to the season but injuries have since played a huge role for Griffin and the Warrior squad in general.

Griffin, 5-8, 195 pounds rushed for 850 yards and 15 touchdowns last season. He was looking to double those numbers as a senior and looked well on his way after rushing for 248 yards and two scores in week one of the season.

"He was on his way to a 2,000 yard season," Warrior coach Alonzo Carter said. "He had a great first game and then on the fourth play of our second game, he got hit late on his hip and suffered a pretty bad hip pointer. He hasn't played since and we ended up tying that game and then we lost the next week. There is no question in my mind we would be undefeated right now if we had Willie for both of those two games."

Recruiting has also been put on the backburner for the running back for now. Griffin was set to visit Colorado in two weeks but that trip has now been moved.

"I felt like a lot of our players were worrying too much about recruiting instead of the football season so I moved all the trips the kids had until later in the year," Carter said. "Willie is now going to visit Colorado (Dec. 8), same thing for Kyler (O'Neal). He's still going to visit Oregon State (Nov. 24) since that's at the end of the season and then Washington will be (Dec. 1).

"That's three weekends in a row, boom, boom, boom and then he should be able to knock out his decision by the middle of the month. Like I said, I just want Willie focusing on getting his hip healthy and getting back on the field. All the recruiting stuff will take care of itself later in the year."