Cornell University Athletics

As a senior (2019)

• Has played in all 10 contests with eight starts at right guard.
• Despite only one returning starter, he was a big part of a line that helped the offense increase its scoring average, total offense and rushing touchdowns over 2018.
• The line allowed one sack or less in five of the team’s seven Ivy games.
• Helped plow the way for an offense that rushed for 263 yards and three touchdowns in a win at Marist.
• Opened holes for teammate Harold Coles' career-best 141-yard performance at Ivy preseason favorite Yale as the Big Red line surrendered just one sack.
• Helped pave the way for an offense that piled up 470 yards of offense and scored 37 points without allowing a sack in the win over Brown.
• The team had four games with more than 400 yards of total offense – including two 200-yard rushing games and five with at least 250 passing yards.
 

As a junior (2018)

• Began the 2018 campaign as the team’s starting left guard, opening each of the first two games.
• Played in eight total contests.
• Helped Cornell rush for 1,561 yards and 13 touchdowns, the most rushing yards in a season since 2006 (1,821).
• The team allowed 18 sacks, down from 28 the previous year and the fewest by a Big Red offensive line since surrendering 17 in 2006
• Helped the Big Red rush for 155 yards and two touchdowns against the nation’s top-ranked rushing defense of Harvard (50.0 ypg.) – they had allowed just 150 yards total in their first three games.
• Cornell averaged 156.1 rushing yards per game despite playing seven of 10 opponents ranked in the top 20 nationally against the rush entering the game – doubled opponents season average entering the game on four occasions.

As a sophomore (2017)

• Started each of the team's final seven contests at left guard.
• Earned his first varsity action with a start in the victory over Harvard.
• Team averaged 163.7 rushing yards per game with 11 touchdowns on the ground in his seven starts.
 

As a freshman (2016)

• Competed with the junior varsity as a freshman in 2016.
 

Prior to Cornell

• Riffle was a second-team all-county offensive lineman according to the Miami Herald as a senior captain at American Heritage HS.
• The two-year starter was part of two state championship teams.
• Riffle was named the South Florida High School Sports Scholar-Athlete in 2015 and earned the National Football Foundation’s Brian Piccolo Scholar-Athlete Award by the local chapter of the National Football Foundation.
 

Personal

• John Christian Riffle is the son of John Scott and Andrea Riffle and has a younger brother.
• He is enrolled in the College of Engineering.