Robert Griffin III

Robert Lee Griffin III (born February 12, 1990) is the starting quarterback for the Baylor Bears college football team. As a true freshman, he earned Big 12 Conference Offensive Freshman of the Year honors. As a redshirt junior, Griffin (popularly known as RG3) won the Heisman Trophy on December 10, 2011, becoming the first player from Baylor to win the award.

Early life and high school career
Griffin was born in Japan, where his parents, Robert Jr. and Jacqueline, both U.S. Army Sergeants, were stationed. The family later lived in the U.S. State of Washington, and then moved to New Orleans, before finally settling in Copperas Cove, Texas in 1997.

Football
Griffin attended Copperas Cove High School, where he was a three-sport star in basketball, football, and track. He started at quarterback for two seasons. During his junior season, he passed for 2,001 yards and 25 touchdowns with two interceptions, while compiling 876 rushing yards for 8 touchdowns. He received first-team All-District 16-4A honors after the season. As a senior, he recorded 1,285 rushing yards, posting 24 touchdowns, and also passed 1,356 yards for 16 touchdowns with seven interceptions. In his senior season Copperas Cove finished with a record of 13–2, and lost in the championship game of the 2007 Class 4A Division I state playoffs. Over the two seasons, he rushed for a total of 2,161 yards and 32 touchdowns, while passing for 3,357 yards and 41 touchdowns with nine interceptions.

Track
In track, he broke state records for the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles. He ran the 110-meter hurdles in 13.55 seconds, and the 300-meter hurdles in 35.33 seconds. The 300-hurdles time was one-hundredth of a second short of breaking the national high school record. He was also a gold medalist in the 110 and 400-meter hurdles on the AAU track and field circuit. He sprinted 13.46 in the 110-meter hurdles and 49.56 in the 400-meter hurdles as a junior in high school. In 2007, as a junior, he was rated the No. 1 high school 400-meter immediate hurdler in the country, and was tied at No. 1 for the 110-meter sprint hurdler in the nation. Also as a junior, he received the Gatorade Texas Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year award.

College recruitment
Rivals.com, a college football recruiting service, ranked Griffin the fourth-best dual-threat quarterback in the nation and the 42nd-best player in Texas in the high school prospect class of 2008. During the college recruiting period, Griffin was pursued by Stanford, Tennessee, Kansas, Nebraska, Houston, Tulsa, Illinois, Washington State, and Oregon. Griffin initially committed to play for the University of Houston under head coach Art Briles. When Briles left Houston to take the head coaching position at Baylor, Griffin switched his commitment and eventually signed a National Letter of Intent to play for Baylor.

College career
Griffin graduated from high school a semester early and began attending Baylor in the spring 2008 semester at 17 years old. He joined the track team, and finished first place in the 400-meter hurdles at both the Big 12 Conference Championship and the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship meets; he also broke the NCAA Midwest Regional 400-meter hurdles record. He placed third in the NCAA meet and also participated in the U.S. Olympic Trials, in which he advanced to the semifinals. He graduated with a 3.67 GPA in political science and is currently studying for a Masters in Communication.

2008 season
Griffin started 11 of 12 games his freshman season. In the upset 41–21 victory over the Texas A&M Aggies, he recorded 13-of-23 passes for 241 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and no sacks.

Griffin garnered Big 12 Freshman of the Year honors from the league's coaches (who are not allowed to vote for their own players) as well as the media.

The team finished the season with a 4–8 record (2–6 Big 12).

2009 season
Griffin sat out for the remainder of the 2009 season after sustaining an isolated tear to his ACL in the first half of the third game and his third start of his sophomore year. The Bears picked up a 68-13 victory over Northwestern State.

Season record was 4–8 (1–7 Big 12).

2010 season
Griffin was granted redshirt status so he entered the 2010 season as a redshirt sophomore. According to the bylaws, players who are injured after playing less than 30 percent of the season may be eligible (Griffin was injured during game three of 12 of the 2009 season, with 25 percent of the season completed).

Baylor finished the season 7–6 (4–4 Big 12).

2011 season
Coming into the 2011 season, the Baylor Bears were not expected to do well, being picked 6th in the Big 12 preseason poll. The Bears opened the season with 15th ranked TCU. The Bears took a 47-23 lead into the 4th quarter, and were able to fight off a comeback after TCU gained the lead 48-47 briefly, only for Baylor to kick the game winning field goal and win 50-48. They pulled off the upset in large part to Griffin's performance, who passed for 359 yards, 5 touchdowns and a 77.8% completion percentage. Following the win, Baylor entered the AP Poll rankings for only the third time in the previous 15 seasons, at 20th, and Griffin was considered by many to be a Heisman Trophy candidate. After a bye week, Baylor shut out Stephen F. Austin State University 48-0 and Griffin went 20 of 22 (90.9%) for 247 yards and 3 touchdowns and ran for 78 yards. In week 4, Griffin ushered Baylor to their third win, beating Rice University 56-31. Griffin completed 29 of 33 passes (87.9%) for 338 yards with 51 yards rushing and a touchdown. In week five, against Kansas St. Griffin almost brought the bears to their fourth win, but lost 36-35 to Kansas St. completing 23 out of 31 (74.2%) for 346 yards, five touchdowns, and one interception. In week five against Iowa St. Griffin took Baylor to Iowa for their fourth win completing 22 out of 30 (73.3%) for 212 yards, one touchdown, and zero interceptions. He won the Heisman Trophy, becoming the first player from Baylor to win it. On December 16, it was reported that Griffin's parents were interviewing potential agents, indicating that Griffin was preparing to enter the NFL Draft.

Statistics

 * **Griffin sat out for the remainder of the 2009 season after sustaining an isolated tear to his ACL in the first half of the third game and his third start of his sophomore year.


 * In 2009, Griifin had one (1) punt for 59 Yards.
 * In 2011, Griffin has three (3) punts for a total of 99 yards, the longest was 39 yards.

College awards and honors

 * 2011 Heisman Trophy winner
 * 2011 Davey O'Brien Award winner
 * 2010 Semifinalist for Maxwell Award
 * 2010 Semifinalist for Walter Campbell Player of the Year
 * 2010 Baylor's Kyle Woods Inspirational Leader
 * 2008 Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year (as selected by the league's coaches and the media  )
 * 2008 Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week (received honor for the week of September 7–14, 2008; Griffin led the Bears to a 45–17 victory over Washington State on September 12, breaking various school records in the process )
 * 2008 Sporting News and Rivals.com freshman first team All-American
 * 2008 Big 12 gold medalist (400m hurdles)
 * 2008 Track & Field All-American (400m hurdles)
 * 2008 Baylor Offensive MVP

School records

 * 2008 Rushing yards by a freshman: 843
 * 2008 Rushing yards by a QB: 843
 * 2008 Rushing yards Per attempt (Game): 20.45 vs. Washington State, (11 for 225 yards)
 * 2008 Rushing TDs (Season): 13 (tied)
 * 2008 Rushing TDs by a QB (Season): 13
 * Rushing TDs by a QB (Career): 23
 * 100-yard Rushing games by QB (Season): 4
 * 100-yard Rushing games by QB (Career): 5