Mitch Griffis proud to be Wake Forest QB, cites other 'shady stuff' around college football

Mitch Griffis will step in as Wake Forest’s QB1 this fall following the departure of Sam Hartman, who transferred to Notre Dame for his final season.

Griffis said he was not approached in the era of transfer portal and NIL, but wouldn’t want to leave regardless. He said the Demon Deacons did right by him over the last three years and he wouldn’t change a thing. 

Griffis joined Sirius XM ACC Radio to talk about why he decided to stand pat with Wake Forest.

“No,” Griffis said if other schools approached him. “And if they did, I didn’t hear about it. I didn’t talk to anybody and I had no desire to go anywhere else and I’m gonna finish my career as a Demon Deacon. I started my career as a Demon Deacon, there’s no place else I’d rather be, no other coach I’d want to play for and there’s no other teammates that I want to go out to battle with.”

However, Griffis acknowledged the unique era of college football.

“Yeah, I mean, it definitely is unique,” Griffis said. “I mean, I understand when some guys are offered some life changing money. You know, it’s really hard to say no at such a young age. It can one, either help your situation back home and family or improve your future situation. So I can understand when some guys do it. 

“Again, I think the guys we have at Wake Forest, I can tell you, they’re not always looking for a paycheck. They’re looking to come here because they love football.” 

But just because Wake Forest is a little different according to Griffis, doesn’t mean you can’t excel with the Demon Deacons on and off the field.

“And I mean, you’ve seen throughout the offseason with some of our guys’ social media, you can get paid here too,” Griffis said. “So again, I can’t fault guys for making decisions that benefit them or benefit their family. However, I do think there’s some shady stuff going on in college football where guys are offered this amount of money here and there and it ends up not being true.”

Griffis felt Wake Forest was always truthful and took away a sense of pride from that factor.

“And that’s something that attracted me to Wake Forest,” Griffis said. “I’m going on my fourth year and not once have I ever been done wrong, never once been lied to. And you can’t really find that in a lot of other college football programs.”

In limited playing time, Griffis is 33-of-56 passing (58.9%) for 404 yards, six touchdowns and one interception.

As a member of the Class of 2020, Griffis was a three-star recruit out of Ashburn (Va.) Broad Run, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 18 overall prospect in the state, the No. 40 quarterback in the class and the No. 581 overall prospect in the class.