The Southern Miss quarterback room has taken another hit before starting the 2018 season.
It was announced by the school Saturday morning that redshirt senior Kwadra Griggs “has been suspended indefinitely pending resolution of a student conduct matter.” The university made no further comment.
When news came down, the Golden Eagles were on the field preparing for their first scrimmage of fall camp. Griggs did not play, nor was he on the field at the time.
After the scrimmage, coaches and players participated in Media Day with local reporters, which concluded with a 19-minute long grilling from the media to Jay Hopson. It started with the obvious.
“Right now, Jack is looking like he’s moving to the top,” Hopson said about moving forward at quarterback. “I thought he had a good today. He made some good throws, I thought he ran the offense well.”
When asked specifically about Griggs, Hopson didn’t say much.
“He’s one of my sons and I love him to death. That’s all I’m going to say about that. I love the kid,” Hopson answered.
Hopson followed with even less when asked another question on the topic.
Griggs has been locked in a position battle with sophomore Jack Abraham, who transferred into the program from Northwest Mississippi Community College, throughout fall camp. Griggs missed spring practices while recovering from an Achilles injury, but he said he felt great after the team’s first practice more than a week ago.
Sophomore Marcelo Rodriguez and true freshman Tate Whatley are also in the mix at quarterback. Southern Miss offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson gave his other quarterbacks a message prior to the scrimmage.
“Everybody has a job to do, and we have to go do our job,” Dawson said he told his quarterbacks. “There’s really nothing to talk about.
“We’re going to have a battle.”
Griggs battled former Southern Miss quarterback Keon Howard for the starting role in 2017, and ultimately won even though he missed a handful of games due to a hand injury. Howard transferred to Tulane last month to shrink the quarterback battle to two quarterbacks realistically.
As a junior, Griggs passed for 1,879 yards, 16 touchdowns and only two picks with a 56 percent completion percentage.
Griggs missed the 2016 season because he was ruled academically ineligible.
