Notre Dame has convinced one of its recent transfer portal entrants to return to the program.
Rising senior safety Houston Griffith pulled his name out of the transfer portal Friday, Rivals has confirmed. The news was first reported by Irish Breakdown’s Bryan Driskell.
Griffith entered his name into the transfer portal Jan. 4, three days after Notre Dame’s season ended. When the Irish hired Marcus Freeman as defensive coordinator, though, he began recruiting Griffith to stay, along with head coach Brian Kelly. Now back with the team, the No. 43 overall player in the 2018 Rivals250 is expected to compete for a starting job, likely at the open safety spot next to rising junior Kyle Hamilton.
Illinois, Georgia and Oklahoma were among those who had expressed strong interest in Griffith after he entered the portal.
Griffith totaled 14 tackles (1.0 for loss) in 12 games this season as a backup safety and occasional sub-package player. He started early season games against South Florida and Florida State due to injuries and absences.
Griffith began 2020 fall camp in the competition to start next to Hamilton, but sixth-year senior Shaun Crawford earned the job after he slid over from cornerback. Griffith spent most of his time on defense in nickel and dime packages, supplementing primary nickel back DJ Brown. He was also a special teams fixture.
A mid-year enrollee and Notre Dame’s highest-ranked recruit in 2018, Griffith frequently saw the field as a freshman. His 197 snaps as a freshman were the most of any 2018 signee that year. He was the primary nickel back after Crawford tore his ACL that fall.
In 2019, Griffith moved to cornerback and saw his snap count nearly cut in half. He played 104 snaps, most of them in garbage time, and shifted back to safety during the season. He played with the first-team defense at Notre Dame’s lone 2020 spring practice and impressed, but that didn’t amount to him earning the starting job.
The 6-0, 204-pound Griffith is a Chicago native and played his first three years of high school football at Mount Carmel on the city’s South Side. He transferred to IMG Academy in Florida for his senior year and committed to Notre Dame in December 2017. He had initially committed to Florida State.
Griffith has 39 total stops, 1.0 tackle for loss and three passes broken ups in 37 career games, with three starts.
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