By now, you’ve likely heard the news: Baylor quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III is reportedly set to declare for the NFL Draft. While nothing has been made official yet, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen spoke with Griffin’s father, who said:
“I met with my son (Friday) and his schedule is pretty much he will attend the Sugar Bowl here in New Orleans, then next weekend he will meet with five agents and select the right agent to represent him and plan a good pre-draft process,” Griffin II said. “After that he will sit down with three of his coaches at Baylor on Wednesday or Thursday (Jan. 11 or 12) and make it official.”
Given how little Griffin had left to prove at the collegiate level, that news was surprising to essentially no one. Along with the previously mentioned Heisman Trophy this season, Griffin also won the Davey O’Brien award as the top quarterback in college football, and his name was dotted across just about everyone’s All-American lists. Other than a chance to play for a National Championship in 2012 (which, given what we saw from Baylor’s defense last week almost assuredly wouldn’t have happened), there really wasn’t a single good reason for Griffin to return to college football. Simply put, this was the right move.
And while we’ll get to Griffin’s potential as a pro in the coming weeks, right now, it’s time to reflect on everything that he did at Baylor. When you do, it’s hard to think of any single player in years that put his individual fingerprints on a football program like Griffin did at Baylor.
As part of Art Briles first recruiting class at the school, Griffin literally and figuratively became the face of a rebuilding Baylor team when he took the reins as a starting quarterback his true freshman year. And while things started out rocky (4-8), his final two years in the program were amongst the best in school’s history. As a redshirt sophomore in 2010 (the 2009 season was lost to an injury), Baylor went to their first bowl game since 1994 and followed it up in 2011 with their first back-to-back bowl games since the 1991 and 1992 seasons. With the bowl win last week, the 2011 season also marked the first school’s first 10-win season since 1980, and just second since 1945. To look at it through a different lens, the Bears won 10 games this year; they’d combined for just 12 wins total in the three years before Griffin’s arrival.
Really though, Griffin’s impact at Baylor goes beyond just wins and losses. In actuality, it was more cultural than anything.
Simply put, Griffin made it “cool” to be a Baylor Bear. Read any interview with Art Briles, and he’ll tell you that Griffin’s presence alone allowed his coaching staff to get into the homes of recruits they would’ve never been able to before. Watching Baylor this past year verified exactly that. While the defense left a lot to be desired, it was still hard to find a team with better across the board athletes than the Bears did. Their jerseys may have said “Baylor,” but when the Bears lined up and the whistle blew, they played like Oklahoma or Texas. That is something you could’ve never, ever said a few years ago.
And really, that may end up being Griffin’s ultimate legacy.
When he arrived at Baylor, they were nothing more than an overmatched team, and were a guaranteed win on everyone’s schedule in the Big XII. It was almost impossible to find a Bears game on national TV. Now four years later, the school has its first Heisman Trophy winner and finished tied with Oklahoma (and ahead of Texas) in the Big XII standings. Most importantly, in a college football season that was devoid of interesting storylines or compelling teams, RGIII and Baylor were on the tip of everyone’s tongues from their opening week win against TCU straight through last week’s Alamo Bowl.
Whether Griffin goes on to be a great pro or not is irrelevant.
In the sport of college football, he’ll forever be a legend.
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