7/13/2020 football Edit

JUCO DL McGriff picks West Virginia Mountaineers football

McGriff has committed to the West Virginia Mountaineers football program.

Keenan Cummings • WVSports

Managing Editor

West Virginia had been targeting Senatobia (Miss.) Northwest Mississippi C.C. defensive tackle Nijel McGriff for quite some time and the Mountaineers have now landed their man.

McGriff, 6-foot-3, 290-pounds, announced his commitment to the Big 12 Conference program on social media bypassing other offers from Maryland, Memphis, Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic and more.

West Virginia was the first program to extend an offer to the versatile defensive lineman in March and remained in heavy contact with him throughout the course of the process.

Defensive line coach Jordan Lesley served as the lead recruiter for McGriff and the two developed a close connection that played a significant role in his choice.

“He’s a good coach and he’s pretty straight forward,” he said.

West Virginia was looking for help on the defensive front after this following season and McGriff certainly could fill that hole as a college ready body that could play several different positions up front. The versatile lineman could line up both on the edge and the interior.

Coming off a season where he accounted for 27 tackles and 2.5 sacks, McGriff was tabbed as a pre-season all-American selection heading into his second year at Northwest. He had originally planned to take an official visit to West Virginia during the June 12 weekend but that had to be canceled due to the ongoing dead period.

A native of Jacksonville, Florida, McGriff makes for the second defensive lineman to pick the Mountaineers from Northwest in as many years after Quay Mays did so in the 2020 class.

McGriff becomes the 13th commitment for West Virginia in the 2021 class and is the fourth defensive lineman in the class to pick the Mountaineers. He is set to graduate in December and will have three years of eligibility remaining after junior colleges elected to not play until next spring.

WVSports.com will have more with McGriff soon.

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