West Orange’s Riffe twins finally draw attention as signing day nears
West Orange twins Brody and Graysen Riffe said recently that their wait for college football scholarship offers was not frustrating. Of course, that’s easy to say now when Pitt, Penn State and Troy finally came knocking on your door.
“It felt great and we just had a sigh of relief,” Brody said. “With signing day coming up [Feb. 1] ... it was just great that we finally had an opportunity to play at the next level.”
With the early National Signing Day (Dec. 21) having passed, it was starting to get down to crunch time for the Twin Towers.
“It feels good. Obviously we’re going to have to make a decision, but it’s finally good the have a few opportunities,” Graysen said. “We were just so stressed about the recruiting and we don’t have that much time left. We were running out of patience and the offers finally came.”
After the early signing period, it hit the twins that there were only 42 days remaining until the regular signing period.
“We were seeing everybody sign and also still seeing people get offers,” Brody said. “The start of the year was just really stressful.”
Pitt — with recruiter Tim Salem — was the first to offer a scholarship to the 6-foot-8, 300-pound bookend offensive tackles. The twins took an official visit to the school this weekend and the Panthers look to have a leg up on the other two offers.
“We had been talking to Pitt for a while, but the really started talking to us at the start of January,” Brody said.
With the size of the twins, it’s still somewhat baffling they were unable to draw more recruiting attention. Flexibility was the reason most coaches were hesitant to offer the Riffes scholarships. Even that assessment was a bit questionable given that they played volleyball for much of the early portion of they’re youth.
“Our junior year, we definitely struggled with getting low and bending,” Graysen said, “but over the summer we went at least two times a week to this intense stretching thing. We were doing a bunch of ankle and hip stuff, mobility, so it definitely improved by a large factor.”
Blake Boda flips to Coastal Carolina
Cocoa state-champion quarterback Blake Boda was trying to find a college home after leading the Tigers to the Class 2S crown. It was Cocoa’s fifth overall state title, and the Tigers did so in thrilling fashion, defeating FSU High 38-31 in overtime.
A month after winning the title, the 6-foot-3, 173-pound Boda received FBS offers from USF and UNLV and decided to commit to the Rebels on Jan. 1. Then he received an offer from Coastal Carolina and everything changed.
Coastal offered Boda on Jan. 13, he took an official visit and he was sold.
“I flipped my commitment to Coastal,” said Boda, who will play for former FSU quarterback Travis Trickett, now the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Coastal. “I feel great. Our relationship is through the roof and I’m excited to get over to Coastal.”
This past season, Boda completed 270 of 414 passes for 4,028 yards with 49 touchdowns. He had just 11 interceptions.
Boda, who transferred from Daytona Beach Seabreeze for his senior year, had everything fall into place.
“I have a great relationship with the coaching staff and there is a high level of talent the surrounds all three phases of the ball,” he said. “The brotherhood that they have there is unmatched and the atmosphere at Coastal is very special.”
Memphis offers Oak Ridge’s Tyler Davis
Tyler Davis, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound rising senior receiver, earned his first scholarship offer this past week when Memphis reached out. Davis caught 27 passes for 553 yards and 5 touchdowns.
He has great length and is speedy for a big receiver, and there are big changes at Oak Ridge.
Former Jones and Oak Ridge assistant coach Andrew Anderson, who has worked as Elijah Williams’ right-hand man for more than 10 years, is now the Pioneers’ head coach. It’s no coincidence that Davis got his first offer soon after Anderson took over.
“I’m excited and it makes me want to work harder and get ready for the upcoming season,” said Davis, who also is a big contributor on Oak Ridge’s basketball team. “I’ve always thought about football being my sport and when the offer came that’s when I thought, ‘Yeah, football is going to be it.’ ”
Iowa St. offers Seminole speedster Chasen Johnson
Word has gotten out about Sanford Seminole cornerback Chasen Johnson. That word is fast, and the speedy 2024 cornerback is starting to draw plenty of recruiting attention. He received his first FBS scholarship offer this week from Iowa State and also has piqued the interest of programs such as Alabama, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Wake Forest and Miami, where he was visiting this weekend.
“It feels good, man ... just a step closer to where I’m trying to get,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he consistently runs 10.8 seconds in the 100 meters. He also was a member of Seminole’s state champion 4x100-meter relay team last spring. He’s quite proud of his speed.
“Nobody is going to beat me deep,” Johnson said.
Johnson also carries a distinct quality on the football field. The 6-foot-1, 180-pound corner blocked 7 kicks last season and will we looking to top that as a senior.
“It’s really that first get-off step,” he said. “I have an explosive first step. It’s just like when you are running track and you are coming out of the blocks. They teach me how to get out fast, so track helped me out with that.”