Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III beat out preseason favorite Andrew Luck for the Heisman Trophy, taking college football's highest individual award Saturday. Known as RG3, he became the first Heisman winner from Baylor by taking the poll with a comfortable cushion over the Stanford star. Griffin started the season on the fringe of the Heisman contention, a talented and exciting player on a marginal team, while Luck was already being touted as a No. 1 NFL draft pick. Draft day might very well still belong to Luck, but Griffin diverted the Heisman to Waco, Texas, to a school that has never had a player finish better than fourth in the voting – and that was 48 years ago. “It's unbelievable because in the moment we're all amazed when great things happen,” Griffin said. “But it's believable because great things don't happen without hard work.” Griffin received 405 first-place votes and 1,687 points. Luck received 247 first-place votes and 1,407 points to become the fourth player to be Heisman runner-up in consecutive seasons and first since Arkansas running back Darren McFadden in 2006 and ‘07. Alabama running back Trent Richardson was third with 138 first-place votes and 978 points. Wisconsin running back Montee Ball (348 points) was fourth and the other finalist, Louisiana State cornerback Tyrann Mathieu (327) was fifth. Griffin's highlights were spectacular – his signature moment coming on a long, cross-field touchdown pass with 8 seconds left to beat Oklahoma – and he put up dizzying numbers, completing 72 percent of his passes for 3,998 yards with 36 touchdown passes and a nation-leading 192.3 efficiency rating. More importantly, he lifted Baylor (9-3) to national prominence and one of the greatest seasons in school history. The 15th-ranked Bears won nine games for the first time in 25 years, beat the Sooners for the first time ever and went 4-0 in November. Landing Griffin, the son of two US Army sergeants who settled in central Texas, was a recruiting coup for Baylor, though it was something of a package deal. An aspiring lawyer who is working on a master's degree in communications, he holds 46 school records and adoring Bears fans are praying he comes back for more.
