A two-time Super Bowl champion, Howard Griffith (“The Human Plow”) was the best player to ever wear jersey No. 29 for the Broncos.
Everybody loves a good fullback.
After bouncing between three teams from 1991-1992, fullback Howard Griffith had a two-year run with the Los Angeles Rams followed by a two-year stint with the Carolina Panthers. Then he joined the Denver Broncos.
Griffith played in Denver from 1997-2001 before his career was cut short by a neck injury. He was a key blocker for Broncos running back Terrell Davis, who rushed for 2,000 yards and won NFL MVP honors in 1998.
Although he was nicknamed “The Human Plow,” Howard was more than just a blocker. The fullback rushed 35 times for 117 yards and a touchdown and hauled in 68 receptions for 445 yards and six scores in Denver. He won back-to-back Super Bowls with the Broncos in 1997 and 1998, rushing for a touchdown in each postseason run.
Howard retired in 2002 with 1,195 yards from scrimmage and 12 touchdowns on his resume, but he’s known as the best fullback in franchise history thanks to his key blocking for Davis and others.
Rutgers football was analyzed this week by the Big Ten Network during their annual training camp series visit.
The Big Ten Network was at the Rutgers football practice on Wednesday, providing the trio of Dave Revsine, Gerry DiNardo and Howard Griffith the chance to see the rebuilding of the program up close.
What the BTN crew saw, was a team on the rise but one with a thin margin for error. The visit was part of the network’s annual training camp tour of all 14 programs in the conference.
Rutgers was 4-8 last year, missing on outright bowl qualification for an eighth straight season. Saying that “a bowl game can be a realistic goal for this team, this year,” Revsine asked the duo of Griffith and Howard what Rutgers needs to do to get to the postseason.
“I think they need the turnover margin needs to be positive, the defense needs to be able to take the football away. Offensively, they need to be able to run,” Griffith said.
“As they talk about throughout the practice, they need to strain. It’ ‘s the little things; they can not afford to beat themselves. If they don’t do that, there is no reason they shouldn’t be able to be in a bowl game.”
DiNardo, a former head coach at Vanderbilt, LSU and Indiana, is usually upbeat and positive about Rutgers during these annual trips to Piscataway. He provided some more sobering analysis this time around.
The path toward bowl eligibility, the pragmatic DiNardo said, lies on the defensive side of the ball.
“You continue to lean on the defense, you possess the ball. You don’t turn it over. Those to me are the big keys to get this team to six. I don’t know how much they can throw the ball,” DiNardo said.
“I think that if they don’t have a really good run game, they don’t get to six. If they try to be balanced, I’m not sure that’s what they can do. Their strength is their defense. I think you play to the defense totally.”
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Griffith ended things in a more upbeat fashion, providing his view from 10,000 feet rather than just in this moment.
“When I watch this team practice, they’re heading in the right direction. When I think about wins and losses, it’s all about the little things,” Griffith said. “The little things are what’s important.”
Rutgers football has been strong against the run this season, but Iowa’s ground attack seems to be coming along.
For a Rutgers football defense that is among the best in the nation against the run, Saturday’s game against Iowa will be a litmus test for just how far their unit has come. Iowa, a team that perenially is among the best in the Big Ten in rushing, might be getting on track after a shaky start to the season offensively.
So far this season, Rutgers (3-0, 0-0 Big Ten) has allowed just 97 yards over three games, the 32.3 yards per game from the defense is tops in the Big Ten. It has been a tremendous performance from Rutgers in stopping the run. For instance, they absolutely dominated the line of scrimmage in the season opener at Boston College, a 22-21 win for the Big Ten program.
Iowa (2-1, 0-0 Big Ten), who traditionally hang their hat on their ground game, are bottom of the Big Ten in rushing this year, averaging 92.3 yards per game. Although that certainly got on track this past weekend in a strong 27-0 win over Nevada.
The Hawkeyes had 162 yards of rushing, part of a balanced offensive effort that saw them gain 337 yards of total offense.
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In talking on the Big Ten Network, former Illinois fullback Howard Griffith liked the development of Iowa this past weekend. In particular, their usually stout offensive line was showing signs of clicking.
You start to see guys make plays, you started to see the explosive plays out of the run game. From the offensive line, (they’ve) played much better than they have played in previous weeks. You saw them starting to get up to the second levels, to the linebackers, to be able to block there. You saw things starting to open.
“And so much of that is about confidence, right? They have to prove it to themselves that ‘Hey, yes we can get that done’ and not necessarily listen to the outside noise. Now they have to be able to put that together. They have to be able to repeat.”
What a difference a week makes for Rutgers football.
Last week, the mood around the Scarlet Knights march through the season was seemingly a funeral procession following a brutal home loss to Wisconsin, a game where Rutgers got dominated in every phase of the game. But following Saturday’s 38-3 win at Indiana, Rutgers is seemingly buoyant again.
“Pat Hobbs scheduling those three non-conference games – the athletic director- let Greg be 3-0, and then Rutgers loses to Northwestern, which was a matchup opponent, but they beat Illinois and they beat Indiana,” analyst Gerry DiNardo said on the Big Ten Network after the game.
“I mean, Greg Schiano just gets it. He knows the games that you put all your energy, all your emotions into and they play hard against the matchup opponents.”
Rutgers has not made a bowl game since 2014, their first season in the Big Ten.
DiNardo, a former head coach with stops at LSU and Indiana on his resume, was joined by Howard Griffith, a former Illinois standout who spent over a decade in the NFL, in praising the direction of the Scarlet Knights.
Rutgers improved to 5-5 (2-5 Big Ten) on the season with the win. They’ve won two of their last three Big Ten games after starting conference play with four straight losses.
“It is a big time and you heard the coach talk about I mentioned you’re going to when you’re building there are going to be some ups and downs. This was one of those games that they should be able to go out and win and they went out and did it dramatically,” Griffith said.
“And this really continues to show that the program is headed in the right direction.”
We are two weeks away from Penn State kicking off the 2021 season on the road at Wisconsin. During training camp, you find out where you have a strong point and Penn State has that on the offensive side of the ball.
On Monday, the Big Ten Network made a stop to Happy Valley on their training camp tour. During their visit to Happy Valley, analyst Howard Griffith said he came away impressed with what Penn State has at the running back position. He even went so far as to suggest the Nittany Lions have one of the best running back groups in the Big Ten.
The running backs will be lead by Noah Cain, John Lovett who is a transfer from Baylor, Keyvone Lee, Caziah Holmes and Devyn Ford. Cain, Lovett, and Lee all appeared on the watch list for the nation’s top running back award, the Doak Walker Award. Penn State is the only school in the nation with three players appearing on the Doak Walker Award’s watch list.
One of the questions will be how Cain will look after missing practically all of the 2020 season due to injury and how the rotation will go the rest of the season. Head coach James Franklin has suggested he believes Lovett has the potential to be a home-run hitter, an idea that seemed to be supported by Griffith’s comments.
Michigan State Men’s Basketball coach Tom Izzo joined the B1G Impact roundtable on social justice. You can watch it here.
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One of the Big Ten’s many commitments to social justice this year is their new B1G Impact Diversity and Social Justice Roundtable program where Howard Griffith interviews different movers and shakers in the Big Ten athletics community about important social issues in the country as part of the Big Ten Network.
In the latest episode, Griffith was joined by Michigan State Men’s Basketball head coach Tom Izzo, Michigan AD Warde Manuel, and Maryland football coach Michael Locksley.
