Brenden doing the Heisman
My first two years at Baylor, I think we went 1-18-1. We were one of the worst football teams in all of Division I football. The term “cellar-dweller” popped up frequently in any article about us. Things just didn’t work no matter what we did or how hard we tried. To illustrate how painful it was, in one of the few games I attended as a student, we were barely ahead at the end of the game against UNLV. We had the ball on their 5-yard-line or so with a few seconds left. To win, all we had to do was take a knee. But the students, players, and coaching staff were so unbelievably excited that we were about to actually win a game that the coach chose to try for one last touchdown. You can guess what happened.
Snap.
Fumble.
Recovery by UNLV.
The longest, most heartbreaking, most shock-inducing runback for a game-winning touchdown in the history of college football.
I stood there with my mouth hanging open, surrounded by silence, unable to move, lump in my throat, unsure whether my heart was still beating. Our hope lay on the field like a popped green balloon.
Last season things improved significantly compared to those dark days ten years ago. At the beginning of this season, Baylor University started a Heisman campaign for its quarterback, a talented dual-threat player named Robert Griffin III (RG3 for short). I was already an RG3 fan from last season and had high hopes for this one, but the campaign seemed like a longshot. Yes, he could run. And throw. And think. And lead. And make you regret taking that break to grab a drink or hit the bathroom during his latest highlight-reel play. And he just seemed like a good guy – humble, team-oriented, very loyal to Baylor, smart enough to graduate in three years and enroll in grad school to maintain his eligibility, funny, articulate.
However, Heisman Trophy winners play for teams in BCS bowl games like Alabama and Texas. They don’t play for little old Baylor, the team that was thrilled last season to be bowl-eligible for the first time in the Big 12. But I Liked the Facebook page for his Heisman campaign anyway and followed the season. Jenny and I got to attend two games, the TCU game in Waco and the Texas Tech game in Arlington. Except for two blowout losses and a one-point loss in October, we won every game we played, a total of nine. We beat Texas for the second year in a row. We beat Tech for the first time. We beat mighty Oklahoma for the first time. And along the way, RG3 put up Heisman-quality numbers that finally got people to pay attention to little old Baylor, which had finally grown into a dangerous – and fun to watch – football team. We have a date with the Alamo Bowl as the favorite against Washington. Last Saturday night, RG3 won Baylor’s first Heisman Trophy as the most outstanding college football player in the country.
WHAAAAAAAA?
Commemorative Heisman Bear Shirt
Baylor Nation has been going crazy all season, especially this week in the wake of RG3’s achievement. The administration is working on plans for a much-needed, on-campus football stadium at the northeast corner of I-35 and the Brazos River. In addition to our football success, our women’s basketball team is #1 in the country, and the men are top 10 as well. I know athletics is a collection of games, not the true point of college, blah blah blah. I know our society makes a bigger deal of sports and athletes than they deserve. I know all that.
But man, it feels good to win.