On The Plains with Griffin Speaks: ‘I wanted to make Auburn better’

AUBURN, Ala. – So much paper. Just paper everywhere.

Such is the challenge with being part of a major college football program, with inches-thick playbooks, binders, scouting reports and so forth everywhere.

Innovative Auburn graduate defensive back Griffin Speaks came up with a solution for all that clutter.

“One of my old teammates and me, we created this app,” Speaks said. “We’re incorporating machine learning. We’re giving players the ability to take notes, go on your playbook, take quizzes and make adjustments to the playbook digitally.”

Along with his former Baylor teammate Ben Hamilton, Speaks founded a company called GamePrep, and their app – The Player’s Playbook – is in development. The goal is for this app to be used by high school and college teams to store playbooks, meeting notes, and other on-field information on a player’s tablet or phone, reducing the need to carry around huge binders.

“We just saw a need for it,” Speaks said. “We figured out how much (college) programs were paying for all these other software programs that tell us when to go to class or study hall or whatever it may be. But there was nothing that actually helped us on the field.

“The coaches – it’s not their fault – but they’re still quizzing us on whiteboards and handing out paper, and the graduate assistants are grading it. And the data from those quizzes we’re taking, it’s not going anywhere.”

By incorporating machine learning, Speaks said that his app could function similarly to academic study apps and could also keep coaches informed on how their players were memorizing and absorbing the playbook.

“This is how our generation is learning now,” he said. “We want to track that data – for instance, the most frequently messed-up plays, the most accurate plays, all the data the coaches can actually use. There’s so much data the coaches ask for, but they don’t actually track, so we want to provide a spot where they can see all the metrics and build off that.”

While continuing to develop his software, Speaks has one more year to actually play college football.

After graduating from Baylor with a degree in entrepreneurship and corporate innovation in the fall of 2022, the Auburn native and Auburn High graduate still had two years of eligibility. 

And he got the chance to come home.

“I finished my last season at Baylor, and I broke my ankle in the bowl game,” Speaks said. “I was on a scooter. And I had graduated that December and was ready to accept a job. I was supposed to report that upcoming June in Dallas. But I wanted to play so bad somewhere, I didn’t care where. I was putting my film out there and wasn’t really hearing a whole lot. I went on a visit to a couple of other schools

“But then I get a call from Auburn. I called my dad and we went crazy. Once I got the call from them, I didn’t know how real it was. But once they invited me on the visit, and I was actually able to talk to the coaches, and I realized it was real, it was a no-brainer.”

With most of his family still living in Auburn, it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. And being able to play for the school and the team he had followed his whole life was, as he said, “the cherry on top.”

“Growing up here, there was just something different in the air on gamedays,” Speaks said. “At a young age, I didn’t understand it, but I could feel it. Then as I got older, I started to understand why there’s something different. We’d start tailgating at 8 a.m. Then after the games, we’d still be tailgating.”

From the 2009 West Virginia “rain game” to waiting to greet Jason Dufner at the Auburn airport after he won the 2012 PGA Championship, Speaks has no shortage of Auburn memories.

“I could talk for hours about the 2010 season,” he said. “We got the opportunity to go to the national championship. The Clemson game that year was amazing.

“Obviously the 2013 season, I was like 14 years old. That’s when it was really becoming real. That was the most incredible season. Nick Marshall, Sammie Coates, the Georgia game, storming the field after the Alabama game -- it didn’t feel like real life.”

He got the opportunity to be on that field for real during the 2023 season, appearing in all 13 games, mostly on special teams. 

“That meant a lot to me,” Speaks said of the ability to get snaps last year. “My biggest goal when I was coming back was I didn’t want to just sit on the sidelines. I wanted to actually get on the field and contribute for Auburn. I wanted to make Auburn better.

“Being on the field and running down and hearing my name called in Jordan-Hare, it really meant a lot.”

Entering his final football season on the Plains, Speaks wants to continue to make an impact on the field but also continue to grow off the field.

“I feel like this spring and summer, we really put an emphasis on trying to hone in on off-the-field relationships,” the engineering student said. “I’ve really gotten to know a bunch of guys that I usually don’t get to know on that level, and it’s been absolutely incredible. I’m really looking forward to seeing how those relationships expand.

“But we’ve also been working and really getting after it. We’ve got some dudes out there. We’ve got a bunch of guys who are athletes on the field and are really investing in the off-field stuff, which is rare. I think we’ve got a bunch of pros.

“So I’m excited to see where our relationships go, but also what we can do on the field. I’d love to do something special here.”