Griffin III Wins Baylor’s First Heisman Trophy
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NEW YORK – Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III was announced as the recipient of the 77th Heisman Memorial Trophy Saturday night at Best Buy Theater in New York City, becoming the first Baylor player ever to win college football’s most prestigious award.
RG3 won with 405 first-place votes and 1,687 total points to finish ahead of the runner-up, Stanford’s Andrew Luck with 1,407 points and 247 first-place votes. Alabama’s Trent Richardson was third, followed by Wisconsin’s Montee Ball and LSU’s Tyrann Mathieu.
“This is unbelievably believable,” Griffin III said in his acceptance speech. “To Baylor nation, I say this is a forever moment, may we be blessed enough to have more of these in the future.”
A junior Copperas Cove, Texas, Griffin III is the seventh Heisman winner from a Texas school and the first since Texas’ Ricky Williams in 1998. He is the fifth Heisman winner representing the Big 12 Conference and the 29th quarterback ever honored.
No Baylor player had ever finished higher than fourth place in the Heisman voting. Don Trull took fourth in 1963 and Larry Isbell finished in seventh place in 1951. Griffin III also became the first Baylor player to win the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award when he was honored Thursday.
“I couldn’t be more happy for Robert,” head coach Art Briles said. “This outcome, in our minds, wasn’t by chance – it was by design. Robert has been preparing himself to be the best he can be for four years at Baylor. This award is the result of Robert’s dedication and discipline and the support of our team and football program. This is the exclamation point on
the direction of Baylor football and Baylor University.”
RG3 is one of three players in FBS history with 10,000 career passing yards and 2,000 rushing yards, joining Dan LeFevour of Central Michigan and Colin Kaepernick of Nevada. This season, RG3 is the nation’s only player with at least 3,300 passing yards and 300 rushing yards.
Griffin III has led No. 12 Baylor to its first nine-win season since 1986 by passing for a school-record 3,998 yards and 36 touchdowns with just six interceptions. He leads the nation with a 192.31 passing efficiency, which is on pace to shatter the NCAA record of 186.0 set by Hawai’i quarterback Colt Brennan in 2006.
Additionally, RG3 has rushed for 644 yards and nine touchdowns, making him the nation’s leader in points responsibility with 22.67 per game. He ranks second nationally in total offense with 386.83 yards per game, fourth with 36 touchdown passes and fifth with a 72.36 in completion percentage.
RG3 has led Baylor to nationally televised wins over then-No. 14 TCU, then-No. 5 Oklahoma and then-No. 22 Texas. In the win over Oklahoma, RG3 passed for a school-record 479 yards and four touchdowns, including a game-winning 34-yard touchdown pass with eight seconds remaining. That game was his fourth 400-yard passing game this season, giving him five of the nine 400-yard passing performances in 110 years of Baylor football.
The Bears close out the 2011 season by taking on Washington in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 29. Baylor will be looking for the program’s second 10-win season and its first bowl victory since the 1992 John Hancock Bowl. Baylor has sold out its allotment of tickets, but a limited number of tickets are still available through www.alamobowl.com. For more information, visit www.baylorbears.com/bowlcentral.
