MACtion Jeanty
I've found a new player that I like and I'm trademarking this nickname.
It ain't about how hard you can hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.
- Rocky, Rocky Balboa (2006)
The Rocky movie series, at its core, is an underdog story. Coincidentally, so too is the story of the heralded Mid American Conference in college football. Ditto for the MAC’s newest entrant—the UMass Minutemen.
And really, we can go four for four with that narrative regarding the player of today’s article: UMass RB Rocko Griffin, who at least sounds like he could be one of the characters in a Rocky movie. He wouldn’t be the final boss at the end, but more like, one of the semi-intimidating but still easily beatable fighters Rocky has to overcome first along the way.
Griffin began his career in the SEC, playing three years (2020-2022) with the Vanderbilt Commodores. His best season of his career was in 2021, when he took 145 carries for 517 yards and four scores (3.6 YPC). He also caught 10 passes for 41 yards. He had single-season highs of 30 carries, 104 yards, and one score vs. Tennessee, and 26 carries, 117 yards, one score, and two receptions (four targets) for 18 yards against Ole Miss.
He transferred to UTSA in 2023 and had yet another solid season, rushing 91 times for 483 yards and six scores (5.3 YPC). His efficiency was a little more promising at this level, though I don’t hold his 3.6 YPC from the SEC against him too much (it’s hard to be a RB at Vandy).
Now he finds himself in the MAC with the Minutemen. This is a program that is ushering in a new era, both with a new conference, and a new staff. The head coach, Joe Harasymiak, comes over by way of Rutgers, where he served as the DC for the last three seasons.
His OC, Mike Bajakian, comes over from Utah, but spent time at Northwestern (2020-2023) and Boston College (2019) before that. At BC, Bajakian’s RB1 averaged 26 carries per game, 16, 18 and 12 at NW, and 16 last year at Utah. This is an OC you want to track.
What’s more, typically in the past UMass would have pretty tough schedules as an independent. They always manage to put a few SEC teams on there (and this year is no exception), but now their default schedule includes a slate of MAC opponents. They get Temple and an FCS program Bryson to open the year, so it’s not like you’ll have to wait long on returns from Griffin if you draft him. They then take on Iowa and Mizzou with a BYE in between before the in-conference schedule kicks off.
It doesn’t get much better than that when assessing a UMass schedule if you ask me. You’ll know clearly when to play him and when to sit/cut/pick him back up.
Now you may ask why I’ve picked Griffin out of the hat amongst the UMass runners. After all, there are other players like Brandon Hood, Cookie Desiderio etc.
It’s true that what beat writers think/say can’t be taken as 100% fact (a lesson painfully learned over years of CFF experience), and I always try to keep a skeptical mind (some writers are smarter/more connected than others, naturally), but this UMass writer was pretty straight forward about what he thinks the plan will be this fall (11 min mark for RB discussion):
The writer mentions one of Griffin’s best traits being the ability to bounce off tacklers. I’ve already got visions of the MAC version of Ashton Jeanty playing in my mind…
Coaching & System
RB1 PPG AVERAGE — HC: NA — OC: 16.21 (half ppr)
Mike Bajakian is the main man here. His head coach has a defensive background so we won’t concentrate on his background too much. I briefly touched on Bajakian’s RB1 usage patterns from his time at Utah, NW, and BC over the last six seasons.
He spent four seasons in the mid 2010s in the NFL, but prior to that he was the OC at Tennessee and Cincinnati. From his two seasons with the Volunteers, Rajion Neal took 215 carries for 1124 yards and 12 scores in 2013. At Cincinnati, all three seasons featured a 1000-yard rusher; two out of those three saw 230+ carries.
One of the nice features of Bajakian’s RB usage is that in addition to strong carry volume, his RB1s occasionally see a lot of targets too. In 2022, for example, Evan Hull saw six targets per game. In 2021, and 2024, the RB1 saw nearly four targets per game. Notably, when Hull was with Bajakian at NW in 2021 and 2022, he saw 230+ and 270+ touches, respectively.
One of the common threads between Griffin and Bajakian’s backgrounds is that they’ve been positioned in programs that are doormats in their conference, and thus have been working against the grain so to speak to create CFF value.
At UMass, they are in a similar position; however, since they now play in the MAC, they will have a much easier path to playing in competitive games, in my opinion. What happens when you pair the usage of a Coach Bajakian RB with some better efficiency? Well, you could be looking at the… *drum roll* MACtion Jeanty (I’m trademarking this nickname).
Coach B’s historical average is 56% run plays on offence, and a fast pace of play with around 24 seconds per play, or ~69 plays per game. The question you may be wondering about for a program like this—and unfortunately I don’t have great news—is that the Minutemen return only ~26% of the OL starts from a year ago. It would be nice to have some continuity there, as a team UMass ran the ball somewhat effectively last season (though they didn’t have one individual runner who got all the yards).
Rocko Griffin (5’9, 200)
Griffin was a lowly three star prospect coming out of high school. While he played in a good football state, he played in low division of play from what I can tell. He signed with Vanderbilt as a member of the 2020 class, appearing in seven games immediately as a freshman. That’s always a good sign. His only other P4 offers were Louisville and Virginia.
He took over in short order as the lead back the following season in 2021, and then fell to injury early in the 2022 season.
There are limited highlights out there on Griffin, but he does look the part of a hard, violent runner. I don’t know about his open field speed (he’s definitely not a burner), but he’ll be fast enough at this level to beat MAC defenders.
He’s demonstrated a modest ability to catch passes (23 career receptions thus far), but I wouldn’t say this is a big part of his profile. Whether his usage increases under Coach B, remains to be seen.
The two QBs vying for starting duties are Brandon Rose from Utah, and Grant Jordan from Yale. Each is somewhat different players. Jordan demonstrated a strong running ability at Yale last season with 77 attempts for 360 yards and five scores. If he wins the job, he could present a challenge for redzone scores to Griffin. This is not a large concern in my mind. ◾
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Sample from 2018-2024, excluding 2020.