Robert Griffin III has been too caught up in the moment to really consider how much he's done to change the perception of Baylor. When Griffin finally slows down and thinks about it, he might realize just how unimaginable it all seemed when he first arrived on the private school campus nearly four years ago as a 17-year-old kid who graduated high school early. “I know we've been creating a lot of history,” Griffin said. “But it's tough to be within it and look back on what's happened. ... The way the program is going now, you expect good things to happen.” The next good thing could be the dual-threat playmaking quarterback and aspiring lawyer known as “RG3” becoming Baylor's first Heisman Trophy winner. That is quite a thought considering that the Bears used to be a constant fixture at or near the bottom of the Big 12 standings and never had a winning record in the league before Griffin arrived. There also were concerns each of the last two summers during realignment talks that Baylor could be left out of a major conference before the Big 12 twice revived itself. Now the 15th-ranked Bears (9-3) have their most wins in 25 years and are going to their second consecutive bowl game after a 16-year postseason drought. With a win over Washington in the Alamo Bowl, they would match the school record of 10 wins set in 1980 during Mike Singletary's senior season. “It's great whenever you can build something up from the ground up, because here at Baylor, things hadn't been good for a while,” Griffin said. “The foundation had eroded away and we were able to get the grass back green.” Griffin, the nation's most efficient passer and one of the most exciting players, is one of five Heisman Trophy finalists. He is the only one from the Big 12, whose last two winners have been Oklahoma quarterbacks, Sam Bradford in 2008 and Jason White in 2003. “The Heisman to me has always been about excitement,” Griffin said. Griffin, who won the Davey O'Brien Award as the nation's top quarterback on Thursday, has completed 267 of 369 passes (72 percent) for 3,998 yards with a Big 12-leading 36 touchdowns and only six interceptions, and run for 644 yards with nine more scores. He has averaged 387 total yards a game and his touchdown passes have averaged more than 36 yards each.
