Praise Him in the Highs and the Lows: Reice Griffith's Road From a Shattered Leg to Toledo's Sideline
Five days before his first varsity football game, Reice Griffith heard a crack loud enough for players on the other practice field to hear it. He didn’t feel pain first. He felt his career get ripped away.
“I chose not to stand up,” Griffith said. “Looking back, I believe the Holy Spirit told me to stay down.”
That instinct to stay still on a football practice field in 2020 rather than test a leg that felt wrong is the hinge on which his entire story turns. Six years later, Griffith is a senior placekicker at the University of Toledo, arriving in the Glass City as Mercer University’s all-time leading scorer with 265 career points, a career-long 51-yard field goal, and a streak of 145 consecutive extra points that never wavered.
But before any of that, there was a cast up to his thigh, a global pandemic, a hurricane bearing down on his hometown, and a kid asking God why.
A Panhandle Kid With a Calling
Griffith grew up in the Pensacola area, in Pace, Florida, the son of a father who went to Woodham High School and a mother who moved to town right after college. He has an older sister finishing physical therapy school at William Carey University, and a faith that took root years before he ever put on a football helmet.
“I was saved at the age of 10 on Mother’s Day and baptized that Christmas Eve, and I’ve been a lifelong member of Olive Baptist Church,” Griffith said.
Soccer came first, travel soccer, starting at age 4. Football wasn’t on the radar until around eighth grade, when a hometown connection changed Reice’s course. Ryan Santoso, a Pace High School graduate who went on to kick in the NFL, gave Griffith his first real lesson in the position.
“Around 8th grade, I started to feel that God was calling me toward football,” Griffith said. “Ryan gave me my first real lesson, and he encouraged me to focus on football. By my first year, I knew this was the route I wanted to take.”
He committed fully, and by his sophomore year at Pace High, Griffith had emerged as one of the top-ranked kickers in the state. Then, in 2020, everything stopped.
The Night Everything Broke
It happened during a punt-block drill, five days before his first game of the season, bone-to-bone contact with a diving teammate that shattered his left tibia, his kicking leg. Griffith remembers the sound before he remembers the pain.
“In 2020, during COVID, about five days before my first game, I shattered my left tibia during a punt block drill,” he said. “A teammate accidentally hit my leg, and the sound was so loud that they could hear it from the field.”
Trainer Crystal and teammate Logan Pitts got him off the field. At the urgent care, doctors initially thought that he hadn’t broken his leg. An X-ray told a different story: a complete break. What followed wasn’t a surgery; it was four months in a cast, under the care of Dr. Kendall, a fellow member of Olive Baptist Church, with strict orders not to put weight on the leg. That single instruction became the most important part of his recovery.
“X-rays confirmed a full break, and I spent about four months in a cast up to my thigh,” Griffith said.
The emotional toll outweighed the physical one. Griffith had built real momentum as a kicker, and in an instant, it was gone during a pandemic, no less, and with Hurricane Sally bearing down on the Gulf Coast not long after. Recovery meant isolation stacked on isolation.
“I felt anger and frustration, mostly because everything had been going so well,” he said. “I never fully doubted I would return, but I knew I’d be playing catch-up.”
Through it, one verse became more than a comfort; it became permanent. Jeremiah 33:3 is now tattooed at the site of the injury.
“Jeremiah 33:3 became a life verse for me: ‘Call to me and I will answer you…’” Griffith said. “I also learned to release my emotions, which was important for healing.”
Purpose in the Pain
Griffith is careful about how he frames the hardest year of his life. He never says God abandoned him. He says he asked why a lot.
“I wouldn’t say I was angry at God, but I did ask ‘why’ a lot,” he said. “I realized it was a life lesson meant to strengthen me. It gave me the ability to handle challenges mentally and spiritually and to relate to others facing their own struggles.”
Leaning on prayer, scripture, and his church community, including mentors Brandon Henry and Johnny Newton, Griffith says the recovery taught him something success never could.
“Recovery taught me discipline and perseverance in a way that success never had,” he said. “Hitting rock bottom pushed me to work harder than ever. I learned to keep my head down, trust God, and stay consistent. That mindset helped me climb back to being a top kicker, even after the setback.”
From Macon to the Glass City
Griffith’s comeback carried him to Mercer University on a full-ride scholarship, secured in the pre-NIL era, when you won the roster spot with film and faith, not deals. He had preferred walk-on offers from bigger programs, but Mercer felt different the moment he stepped on campus.
“I had some preferred walk-on offers at bigger schools, but when I visited Mercer, I felt at home,” Griffith said. “Coaches like Fred Jones and Drew Cronic made a big impact, and after prayer and reflection with my family, I accepted a full-ride scholarship.”
Over three seasons with the Bears, Griffith became one of the most reliable specialists in the FCS, a 40-of-52 career field goal kicker who never missed an extra point, and the program’s all-time leading scorer by the time he left Macon.
That success is also what pulled him nearly a thousand miles north. After Mercer head coach Mike Jacobs led the Bears to back-to-back Southern Conference championships, Toledo hired him away in December 2025. Jacobs brought a wave of his staff and roster with him, seven assistant coaches and fourteen players, Griffith included.
“After my junior year, Coach Jacobs and much of the Mercer staff moved to Toledo,” Griffith said. “I prayed for guidance and realized that I wanted to be where I was valued and trusted. I followed the staff to Toledo, even though I never imagined living so far north.”
Toledo wasn’t a hard sell once he thought it through, even with a Canadian wildfire smoke advisory pushing his workouts indoors and a climate that couldn’t be further from the Florida panhandle.
“This is right where the Lord wants me to be,” Griffith has said of the move. “I’m excited to be here in Toledo.”
Faith in the Locker Room
At Mercer, Griffith found a built-in support system through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes when they held Bible studies, had mentorship, and had a spiritual community that shaped how he leads now.
“Mercer’s FCA was a huge support system, with Bible studies and mentorship,” he said. “Up north, FCA isn’t as big, but we have player-led Bible studies at Toledo. The experience at Mercer taught me to engage with and encourage teammates here, sharing my story and faith.”
He credits close friends like Bud, a Mercer FCA leader, and his family and church back home for staying present even from a distance, texts, calls, and prayers that didn’t stop just because a jersey number changed.
A Word for the Wounded
Ask Griffith what he’d tell an athlete lying on a field, wondering if God has forgotten them, and the answer comes without hesitation.
“Trust the process and trust God,” he said. “Surround yourself with uplifting people and lean into scripture. There will be emotional days; allow yourself to feel them. God will bring you back stronger mentally, physically, and spiritually.”
It’s advice built from experience, not theory from a kid who once feared a broken leg had ended a football career before it started, and who now lines up field goals for a Mid-American Conference program with a career-long kick of 51 yards and his sights set on breaking Toledo’s school record.
“Praise Him in the highs and the lows, in the makes and the misses.”
That’s the line Griffith keeps coming back to, the one he wants people to remember more than any stat line.
“My identity is in Christ, and I want people to see that through my journey from injury to recovery to where I am today,” he said.
A Personal Note
I didn’t set out to put myself in this story. But as a writer, a personal friend, and, more importantly, a brother in Christ, I feel it’s worth sharing my own connection to Reice.
Even though he, his family, and I are extremely close, I didn’t know Reice well growing up. It was after my own accident, and during Reice’s injury recovery, that he and I grew close. His dad, Charlie, was the head soccer coach at Pace and was always a presence on and off the field, even in the locker room. I watched almost all of his high school football and soccer games at Pace, and I’ve made it a mission to watch him at Mercer, too.
Reice is a great model of a Christian athlete. It’s been a blessing watching him grow from a kid on that practice field into an example on the football field, in the classroom, and in his community, and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ everywhere he goes.
