No Arizona Wildcats receiver is more adept at winning jump balls than redshirt senior Trey Griffey.
We shouldn’t be surprised.
At 6-foot-3, Griffey has a height advantage over most defensive backs he faces. But it’s the lessons he learned from watching his father and playing against his sister that truly give him an edge in those situations.
UA coach Rich Rodriguez said Griffey’s competitive nature enables him to win downfield battles, as he did twice against Utah last week for gains of 42 and 40 yards. Griffey said that side of him comes from dad Ken, who entered the Baseball Hall of Fame this summer.
“If you think about it, when you play baseball, it’s the batter against the pitcher. It’s one on one,” Trey Griffey said. “You’re competing against him. Somebody’s gotta win, and somebody’s gotta lose.”
People are also reading…
No one was more adept at leaping over the wall to steal home runs than Ken Griffey Jr. Although he always tried to mimic his father, Trey said there’s little physical similarity between a jump-ball battle in football and an over-the-wall grab in baseball. “It’s two different sports,” he said.
So are football and basketball, but some of the skills Trey acquired playing one-on-one against sister Taryn apply to the gridiron.
Taryn is a third-year sharpshooter for the UA women’s basketball team. She would win most of their backyard games. To have a chance, Trey, who’s eight inches taller, had to maximize his size advantage.
“If you let her sit at the three-point line, you’ll definitely pay for it,” Trey said. “I usually try to back her down, try to big-man her.”
That backstory help explains Trey’s simple explanation for his jump-ball prowess.
“You’re just going up for a rebound,” he said. “It’s basically just battling.”
Griffey, who’s averaging 19.1 yards on 16 receptions, faces his toughest battle to date Saturday. USC’s Adoree’ Jackson is one of the top cornerbacks and athletes in the nation. On the other side, 6-1, 200-pound Iman Marshall is one of college football’s most physical corners.
“He relishes those challenges,” Rodriguez said of Griffey. “And he’s going to get challenged by a couple of the best ones in the country this weekend.”
