Eric SorensonTo no one’s surprise the kid of ‘The Kid’ can play.
But not the sport which has made his family famous.
No, Trey Griffey is making a name for himself on the gridiron as a redshirt sophomore wide receiver at the University of Arizona, not the diamond like his father Ken Griffey, Jr. and grandfather Ken Sr. did for nearly four decades.
“I was around baseball the majority of my life,” Griffey told Sports360AZ.com’s Brad Cesmat in a recent sit-down interview in Tucson. “So, I love baseball. It’s just not the love that I have for football.”
That’s music to the ears of UofA head coach Rich Rodriguez who is expecting even bigger things from the 6’3, 195-pounder who ended 2013 on a high note catching a pair of touchdowns in the Cats’ AdvoCare V100 Bowl win over Boston College back in late December.
Griffey, not just a student of the game but also in the classroom (Pac-12 All-Academic Honorable Mention last season) isn’t concerned with how many balls are thrown his direction or even where he plays this fall.
“Do whatever I can to help out the team,” he explained to Cesmat. “Whether it’s on kickoff, kickoff return. Anything. Some people have good games, some people have bad games. That’s the job of the receiver core [is] to pick everybody up.”
Although Rodriguez has not named a starter to direct his spread offense in Arizona’s season opener August 29th in Tucson against UNLV, whomever it is will have the benefit of throwing to arguably the most-talented group of receivers in the Pac-12. It includes the return of future NFL’er Austin Hill who missed all of last season due to injury.
“It’s great, Austin being back. We really missed him last year.”
Griffey, who has yet to declare a major, says he’d like to get into coaching when his playing days are over.
“I’m pretty familiar with the sports field.
Yep, you could say that.
