Marcus Kevin Griffin (born January 4, 1985) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are two slightly dif ...

. He played college football at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

and entered the 2008 NFL Draft; however, he went unselected. Griffin was signed as an undrafted free agent by the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansi ...

on April 28, 2008, but subsequently waived on June 30, 2008. He has a twin brother

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...

, who played with him at Texas.

High school career

Griffin attended Bowie High School where he was coached by Jeff Ables. As a senior, he earned '' Austin American-Statesman'' All-Central Texas honors as a defensive back and was first team All-district on both offense and defense. He made 82

tackles Tackle may refer to: * In football: ** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football ** Tackle (gridiron football position), a position in American football and Canadian football ** Dump tackle, a forceful move in rugby of picking u ...

-including 62 solo, 3 interceptions, and 1 fumble recovery. He also played

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. As a quarterback he threw for 1028 yards and rushed for 560.

College career

Marcus Griffin was a walk-on at UT in 2003. The 5th year strong safety had a great first year as a starter as he earned UT's Outstanding Defensive Newcomer Award. In all 5 years in college, he had 227 tackles, 6 interceptions and 91 yards.

2004

Griffin started his career with the Longhorns as a

redshirt freshman Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

with the

2004 Texas Longhorns football team The 2004 Texas Longhorns football team represented the University of Texas at Austin in the 2004 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team was coached by head football coach Mack Brown and led on the field by quarterback Vince Young. Ranked t ...

. That year, he played in all 12 games and made 10 tackles, including 7 on

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

2005

In 2005, he played in all 13 games for the

2005 Texas Longhorns football team The 2005 Texas Longhorns football team represented the University of Texas at Austin during the 2005 NCAA Division I-A football season, winning the Big 12 Conference championship and the national championship. The team was coached by Mack B ...

at free safety and on special teams and recorded 32 tackles.

2006

In 2006, he appeared in 11 games for the 2006 Texas Longhorns football team, starting 10, all at strong safety. The two missed games were against

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

and Baylor and were due to injury. He was named a second-team Academic All-

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its f ...

honoree as well as UT's Outstanding Defensive Newcomer.

2007

Griffin had a great senior season, in which he led the Longhorns in tackles (99) and interceptions (5).

Personal

Marcus' twin brother, Michael Griffin, was also a defensive back at UT. Michael was a first rounder for the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their hom ...

in the 2007 NFL Draft. Their parents, Ronald and Mae, are both retired from the

United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is ...

References

External links

*
Marcus Griffin Texas Longhorn Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffin, Marcus 1985 births Living people American twins Twin sportspeople Players of American football from Austin, Texas African-American players of American football American football safeties American football quarterbacks Texas Longhorns football players 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American people