Griffin Scroggs has four dogs.
He’s the type of offensive lineman that will sing along a practice.
If his offensive line coach busts out a Salt-N-Pepa classic during sled time, that song will stick in his head. Or maybe it will be a theme from the latest Disney movie he’s watched with his nephew.
Scroggs, the man with four dogs, is now a ‘Dawg, too. He made the “awfully tough” decision to de-commit from Georgia Tech over the weekend after a visit to UGA.
“I really like the opportunity here to stay in state and to be close to my family,” Scroggs said. “It has kind of been a dream school for me. It is somewhere that I have been to camps with when I was very young. I made the All-Smart team when I was in fourth grade and fifth grade. I’ve always seen it as a place where I could see myself playing college football one day.”
He just felt like Athens was “home” to him. So he made that officially official today. Scroggs publicly committed to UGA on Tuesday to become the 14th commitment for 2022. That eeks Georgia up another spot past Oklahoma in the 247Sports Composite rankings.
Kirby Smart’s program now boasts the nation’s No. 6 class for this cycle.
This is the start of some real momentum on the trail for the Bulldogs heading into fall camp this weekend. Scroggs becomes the second commit to the class of the last 24 hours of so. He joins 3-star Texas WR Dillon Bell as new Bulldog commits of the week.
Griffin Scroggs: What Kirby Smart told him
He’s the sort that would rather do the backstroke in a 100-pound weighted vest than share some praise he heard about the way he plays football, but we’ll share what Smart told his family over the weekend in Athens.
“Kirby told my mom that I’m the type of guy that comes across once every 10 years,” Scroggs said. “Just a specific body style and work ethic that I have coming out of high school is pretty impressive. To be in high school still.”
Why might have Smart said that? Well, there’s the work that Scroggs is already trying to start up with disadvantaged youth in the Clarke County area.
There was the fact that he called up each of the Georgia Tech coaches prior to his decommitment. He wanted them to hear it from him and not see a Tweet first on social media. That even involved calling one of those Tech coaches he’d really built a strong relationship with on that coach’s birthday.
“That was actually very hard to take that away,” Scroggs said. “I’m not one to go back on my word. I’m not one of those people who would do that. To tell the people who had put so much effort into me and so much trust into me and tell them I wasn’t going to be with them anymore was pretty hard for me. I was having a hard time doing that.”
Scroggs has been on the winning side of 31 of the lasts 32 games he’s started for Grayson. Those efforts led to a pair of state titles.
He committed to Tech because he knew he had a committable offer and a spot in the class. Georgia offered him back on June 8 after he had camped in Athens on June 1. Scroggs came back for a special early tour of Georiga’s new facilities on June 2.
It wasn’t instant, but eventually, Georgia let him know he had a committable spot in the 2022 class in Athens.
“Coach Matt Luke told me I have a definite spot if I wanted to take it,” Scroggs said. “Kirby and he told me that I was one of their top recruiting targets.”
He knew he needed to make the move to Georgia over this past weekend.
“It was probably the visit in Athens,” he said “I had so much fun there. It felt like a family at home there. It felt more personal there.”
Scroggs already has some real relationships with a few earlier Bulldog commits in this class. He’s grown up playing in “FBU” or other various youth all-star events with Gunner Stockton, De’Nylon Morrisette, Marquis Groves-Killebrew, Gunner Stockton and CJ Washington, among others.
More stuff DawgNation will love about Griffin Scroggs
The 3-star prospect ranks as the nation’s No. 51 interior offensive line prospect (IOL) for 2022 on the 247Sports Composite ratings. That places him at No. 1007 overall.
Look for that ranking to climb.
Grayson High coach Adam Carter shares a fond description of Scroggs that elevates that ranking.
“He’s a great kid,” Carter said “Fun to be around. Fun to coach. He’s an offensive lineman. He’s going to come into your locker room and be smiling. He’s going to come into your office and sit down and talk. He’s one of those things that you are just happy to have and you want in your program. He’s a great player, but he’s fun to be around and he’s a leader guy. He just does things the right way.”
Georgia thinks he can play all three of the interior line positions. The best bet might be at center, but he can pull and kick and get out on the stretch play at guard.
“He’s just a big burly and nasty offensive lineman,” Carter said. “But he’s silly and goofy and all of those things. Griffin is one of those guys who will finish plays. You don’t have to worry about that with Griff. He’s going to go until the whistle blows. That’s instilled in him. That’s the way he handles his business and goes about the day-to-day operations. He’s going to finish the drill. He’s going to finish the play. He’s trying to put you in the ground at the end of the play. He’s trying to make you mad. He’s doing all that good stuff. He’s just a big nasty offensive lineman.”
What is Georgia getting in Scroggs?
“They are getting a hard-working and a loyal kid who brings a lot of winning experience,” Scroggs said. “Kirby said he wants kids who come in with a winning mentality. Out of the past 32 games I have started, I have lost one. That’s two state titles in a row.”
“I’ve also got a national title from FBU. So Kirby Smart said if I can win state rings, then I can come in and win a national championship at Georgia, too.”
There are a few other things to note here with Scroggs, too. He’s an accomplished cook and is very handy around the kitchen. His teammates know he can turn some Ramen noodles into a 5-star dish.
Scroggs is also a certified scuba diver. Despite his vast size, he’s held that open water certification since he was 10 years old. If one of those state title rings fell off the boat and 125 feet to the ground, he could go get it.
“No problem,” Scroggs said. “Probably 125 or 150 feet.”
He also becomes the first offensive lineman to commit to UGA in the 2022 cycle. There are some who have looked at the immense depth that Luke has stacked up over the past two years and pondered the thought of what it might take to play early at UGA.
Not Scroggs.
“I’m not scared,” he said. “I know that I am a hard worker and I know that there will pay off and improve me and mold me into the man and into the player I want to be.”
Check out his junior film below.
