Less than two weeks into his tenure with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, it would already be safe to call Thor Griffith a quick study.
And you can count Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Corey Mace among those who seemed to notice as much about the hulking defensive lineman during the team’s rookie mini-camp in Saskatoon.
“These last few days we’ve been challenging him to still be physical in the run game like we know he is but also to work edges on the pass rush, which is not necessarily his forte but he’s shown to be much better than we anticipated to be honest so it’s really good to be able to add some tools to his tool belt,” Mace told reporters as camp wrapped up Friday.
But also perhaps just second nature for a guy who studied economics and Celtic languages while playing football at Harvard University from 2021-23.
“It’s not a huge adjustment but it’s just something you have to keep in mind,” Griffith told media, discussing his first days of Canadian football and learning to keep a yard of separation between opposing lines pre-snap. “It’s not just you have to be off the ball but it’s also just like getting your steps right, getting your hand on the guy at the right time so it’s just getting the timing of everything set up and making sure you’re actually off the ball for a yard instead of being slight(ly) over.”
Griffith also comes to the Riders with a football resume that includes playing his senior year at the University of Louisville and signing last July with the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.
None of which is to mention that he also played minor hockey alongside now-NHL stars Matt Boldy and Matty Beniers on youth teams out of Boston that competed at the Brick Invitational tournament in Edmonton.
Or that he won high school state championships in wrestling and track and field as well.
It was that wrestling experience in fact that he said helped get him into one of America’s most prestigious universities.
“It helped me out tremendously, not only on the on-field aspects but also for the recruiting stuff,” said Griffith. “Coach Murphy at Harvard, I sent him film and wrestling stuff and he loved it, and that’s part of the reason how I got recruited to Harvard.”
But it also taught him lessons that he continues to utilize to this day.
“The biggest thing for me is the mental toughness and just learning how to persevere and keep pushing and just inflict your own will onto another person, and then also the technique of leverage, how people’s bodies move, how to just take advantage of people when they’re off balance.”
The Roughriders are off Saturday before opening main camp at the University of Saskatchewan on Sunday.
