Entering his 10th season at SIU, Coach Nate Griffin is a cornerstone for Saluki Football

CARBONDALE, Ill. — One of the first hires Nick Hill made when he was named head coach in 2016, SIU assistant Nate Griffin has been a cornerstone for Saluki Football ever since.

Griffin has mentored some of SIU’s all-time greats, including All-American Javon Williams Jr., and also served as the program’s recruiting coordinator, helping secure talent that allowed Southern to reach the playoffs in three of the last five seasons.

Before he made coaching his full-time career, the former University of Idaho fullback worked long hours for his brother, laying tile and coaching high school football part-time. He got his first coaching break as a GA at Northern Colorado, and then volunteered on Jerry Kill’s staff at Northern Illinois, eventually re-joining Kill full-time at Minnesota.

Entering his 10th season at Southern, he’s an invaluable sounding board for Hill and the staff. He reflects on his longevity with the Salukis, a relationship with Coach Hill built on trust, and the ups and downs of life as a college football coach.

StrongDawgs: How did you end up playing college football for Idaho?

NG: I’m from Colorado, born and raised. My dad played at the University of Colorado, so it was ingrained in me at an early age, wanting to play college football. The offensive coordinator at Colorado at the time was Tom Cable. He ended up getting the head job at Idaho. Colorado wasn’t going to offer me a scholarship, but I had a relationship with the running backs coach, and so that's how I ended up at Idaho. I had no idea where Idaho was, but that was my shot. I'll tell kids all the time, you don't need a million (offers). You just need one, and that was my one. I ended up meeting my wife there. She's born and raised in Boise, and everybody in her family went to the University of Idaho, proud Vandals.

SD: It had to be a unique experience going back there with SIU for the playoff game in 2023.

NG: It was surreal. I hadn't been back since my wife, Amy, graduated in the spring of ’05. We were fortunate that Coach Hill let her go with us for the playoff game. Just landing in the airport in Pullman, and then making that drive to Moscow, it was surreal. All these memories started popping back up. A lot of my friends and teammates were there, so I got a chance to see them.

SD: What got you into the coaching profession?

NG: When you can't play the game anymore, you still feel like there's that part of you that's attached to the game. When I graduated from college, I moved back home to Fort Collins, got married, started coaching at my high school and fell in love with it. I realized the impact that football coaches had on my life, and I can have the same on these kids.

At the same time, I was working for my brother, laying tile. If we weren't working, we weren't making money. We were working seven days a week from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. sometimes. My wife told me one day, you love coaching, so why not make it your career? We had two options, either go the high school route, become a high school teacher, or go the college route. I knew the sacrifice it took to be a college coach, and the wear and tear it can put on a family, but we talked about, we're young, let's give coaching college a chance.

Our high school coach, Ryan McVicker's dad, talked to a coach at Northern Colorado and put a word in for me. I got my foot in the door with that program and just slowly started working my way up.

SD: How'd you wind up getting into the Coach Kill tree?

NG: So I was finishing my second season at Northern Colorado, finishing up my master's. The offensive coordinator, Dennis Darnell, knew Coach (Pat) Poore. Everybody knows Coach Poore somehow, some way. So this is where Coach P enters my story. Coach Poore knew Coach Kill. At the time, Northern Colorado had just moved up to FCS, and our head coach always talked about how Coach Kill took the Southern Illinois Salukis from nothing to a perennial powerhouse.

Coach Kill was at Northern Illinois at the time, so long story short, they didn't have anything besides a volunteer position, but we jumped on it. With no paying job for myself, Amy supported us. She was working at a veterinary clinic. I was just volunteering doing video, anything they needed me to do. When the GA left in the spring semester, Coach Kill put me on as a GA.

SD: What was it like working for Coach Kill?

NG: He is tough in the sense of what he expects, but at the same time, I saw him take care of his guys. There was great unity within the staff. It was a working machine. They were all great coaches, they developed people. Whoever they brought in, all those players always got better. We had several walk-ons that became scholarship kids that became all-conference type of players.

I was two years at Northern Illinois, and Tom Matukewicz helped me get my first paid job at Truman State, which is a D2 in the MIAA, which is like the Missouri Valley of D2. I got hired on there as the D line coach. It was a special place with a great staff of young coaches who were hungry. Our offices were in an abandoned hospital, because at that time, they were renovating our offices. My office was in a patient's room, but it didn't matter because I was living the dream.

So I was there for a season, and then when Coach Kill got the job at Minnesota, he called and offered us a position on the staff in Minnesota, and we took it. Like every place Coach Kill went, it was a rebuild. I'm sure people doubted that it could be done, but he got it done the same way he's always gotten it done.

One thing I learned from him is that you get what you emphasize. Anybody we played, the expectation was that we could win, that was the standard.

SD: How did you then end up with Coach Hill as one of the first people he hired back in 2016?

NG: So I had met Coach Hill a couple times when he had come up to Minnesota to hang around. Coach (Larry) Warner came up there with him one time. I got to know them, and some of the other coaches who knew him put a word in for me to Coach Hill, and that's how I got here.

Griffin with DJ Davis

SD: You’ve coached guys like DJ Davis, Javon Williams Jr. Talk about helping develop some of the all-time greats at SIU.

NG: Everybody has the potential, based on their abilities, their talents, and you have to get them there. Some peoples’ ceilings are a little higher than others. It starts with building a relationship, getting them to trust you. I always took pride in making sure they were prepared for every situation that we were going to see. At the end of the day, my job is to get them better, not break them down, but build them up. Football is a hard game, and it's not always going to go your way, just constantly trying to help them improve, push them to go chase their dreams and giving them everything they need to go be successful.

SD: Tell me about your role as recruiting coordinator.

NG: I always looked at it as, we're all our own recruiting coordinators by a room. As the main guy in charge, keeping everything organized, making sure everybody has the right information and resources, communication between the head coach, the position coaches, the guys that we’re recruiting, making sure we're on the same page. I just had the title, but it was a whole staff at the end of the day, and it's really Coach Hill and their position coach that they’re coming here to play for.

SD: Two years ago you moved to the tight ends room when Coach Poore retired and the program had the opportunity to bring back Coach Warner to coach the running backs. Talk about making that switch.

NG: I feel more than capable to coach any position. I learned that at Truman State, where I knew nothing about D line, but what it comes down to is teaching them what they need to do and just continually being there to support and push them through. Football is football — hands eyes, leverage, knowing what to do, where to be.

SD: Ten seasons at SIU, it's rare for a coach to spend a decade at a school. Thoughts?

NG: I’m just very thankful, because I know how unstable this profession is. We look at pictures of the kids and they were little when I first got here, and now my daughter's starting high school. My son's in sixth grade. I’m just blessed and thankful.

SD: How has your relationship with Coach Hill evolved over time?

NG: You know, I think we had a good relationship when we first started, and I think now it's become more so. I believe he trusts me with what I do. I think he knows when we go out on the field, we are going to give our guys everything we have.

SD: How do you see your role as helping some of the younger guys that are just breaking into this business?

NG: I’m the old guy now, right? (laughs) It's weird being the older coach, for sure. I think it’s about setting the example of how I show up daily. Them seeing my kids when they come around and how I interact with my family, how I handle my guys. If they have a question, they come in and we’ll talk, but at the same time, everybody's got to find their own path, their own style.

The Griffin Family

SD: How important is having a supportive spouse and family, and Coach Hill being supportive of family life?

NG: There's no doubt I couldn't do this without my wife, Amy. Like I said, when I first started out, I was making zero dollars. She didn't want to be in college coaching, I did, so she was just there to support me in chasing this dream. I'm gone so much that she's a single mom, essentially, once the season starts, and it even goes beyond that into the recruiting season.

People always ask her, all right, football's over now. What's your husband do? She just laughs because it's like, nope, they're still going seven days a week. They're on the road recruiting. They got official visits on the weekend. But I think she believes in what we're doing just as much as I do, in the sense that we're here to make a difference for these kids. Anything she can provide for the players she always does, anything she can provide for the moms or the parents, if they have questions. Are you taking care of them? She does that.

She's the rock that I lean on, that keeps everything going, that keeps the kids going and I couldn't do it without her. As far as Coach Hill, anytime there's a situation where you need to take care of family business, he never flinches. Anytime it comes to family or kids, you go handle that. So having that, it relieves a lot of stress, so if something comes up, I can go to him and he’ll let me take care of it.