USC P Ben Griffiths acclimating after Australian Football League career
USC special teams coordinator John Baxter says it was just another recruiting trip when he went to scout punter Ben Griffiths in Australia.
"Just like everything else, except it took 17 hours to get there," he quipped. "So I got caught up on all the movies that I never get to see. So I got to see E.T. and I got to see Star Wars -- all the movies I never watched when I was a kid."
Baxter had already seen video of Griffiths kicking an American football before he first met him in person. He'd also seen Griffiths' work for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League, where had been a pro for eight seasons before his retirement in January of 2018 due to concussions and injuries.
Baxter said he spent about a year and nine months recruiting Griffiths to join the Trojans as a scholarship punter, which he officially did by signing in December and arriving for this semester.
"Boy, it was exciting to get him here," Baxter said Thursday after practice.
Griffiths is the lone punter for USC this spring and his punts produce a distinct booming sound --"It sounds really powerful if you ask me," Baxter concurred -- whether punting more traditionally or off to the side "Aussie rules" style.
It's Baxter's job this spring and summer to get Griffiths fully acclimated to American football as he prepares to take over the vacated position for the Trojans.
"He watched the games in Australia. He's had plenty of friends that came here. But the thing is he is the first real accomplished AFL player to come do this," Baxter said. "There have been VFL [Victorian Football League] players, there have been some guys who played a couple years of AFL, but to get a guy with that level of experience, that level of talent, that level of maturity that really wants a college degree, that's what makes it special."
On that note, Baxter bristles at one notion he's heard about Griffiths' arrival.
"People think, ah, he's some kind of mercenary -- he's nothing like that. He's a college football player and enjoying every minute of it," Baxter said. "... He was going into a contract year and it was that time for him anyway, so what a blessing -- now at 27, going to be 28, he gets to go to college.
" In Australia the system is a lot like professional baseball. The great players go straight out of high school, and they never have a chance to go to college and he really wanted to go to college. He said he wants to be a teacher, so what a great opportunity for everybody."
Griffiths has not been available for interviews this spring, along with all of USC's new arrivals.
So the story of his recruitment could only be told from Baxter's perspective this week, and he was a bit coy as to how exactly Griffiths first came on his radar. But Baxter noted that when he arrived at USC in 2016, he knew he had punters Reid Budrovich and Chris Tilbey through the 2018 season so he viewed finding his next punter as a three-year project.
"I have friends down there. I had an Australian at Michigan named Blake O'Neill," he said.
Asked a follow-up whether it was a specific friend who pointed him in Griffiths' direction, Baxter smiled and repeated, "I've got a network of friends that identify players."
As for USC's new look at the position, Baxter noted that Griffiths has "more shots" and likened him to a knuckleball pitcher who can make the ball difficult to field for opponents.
Meanwhile, Baxter is simply refining the punter's approach this spring and making sure he's prepared to take over as the team's holder for field goals and PATs, which is the present plan.
"Right now I'm teaching him our game, but he and I, we watch tape together, we talk strategy, he's really coachable," Baxter said. "But he's a mature guy, so he comes up to the office when his homework's done and he's not looking to go anywhere or do anything. He sits there and drinks a cup of coffee and we sit there and watch tape and it's a very professional relationship."
