Griffin McDowell enters his first football season at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga having already proven at least one thing.
He’s willing to adjust.
It showed when he went to the University of Florida in 2018 as an offensive lineman, only for his five years in Gainesville to include time at not only that position but tight end and defensive lineman in addition to special teams. Yet a hunger to play what he considered his natural position persisted, and with one year of college eligibility remaining, he wanted to find a place that would allow him to return to the offensive line.
Soon after he and his wife Lydia were able to visit Chattanooga, they knew they’d found their new home.
Gone are the days of fluctuating weight — McDowell is now 6-foot-5, 282 pounds, but he weighed as little as 255 playing tight end and as much as 315 on the offensive line with the Gators — and back is the hunger of having an opportunity. It comes in the form of a chance to help the Mocs return to the dominance in the trenches that had become a hallmark of the team but was largely missing last year.