Why Baylor Bears Quarterback Robert Griffin III Deserves To Win the 2011 Heisman

Much like every college football season, there are a ton of Heisman candidates that come and go throughout the year. This season we've seen several quarterbacks, running backs, a couple wide receivers and even a few defensive players receive consideration. 

Now with only a week of the regular season left, there are only a handful of players that still have a realistic chance of winning the award.

One of the few players that still has a shot is Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III, and he actually deserves to win it.

With the Bears' Week 1 victory over TCU, his Heisman hype skyrocketed as he had one of the best performances of the year throwing for 359 yards and five touchdowns. But once the Bears lost three games, the hype faded away, and he fell off of many voters ballots all together.

Truth is, he should still be at the top.

He has 3,572 passing yards which is the sixth most in the country. The only Heisman candidate that has more passing yards is Case Keenum but look who he plays. I know a few high schools quarterbacks that could put up godly numbers against the soft C-USA. Doing it in the Big 12 is a completely different story and holds much more weight.

He's thrown for over 350 yards in seven of the Bears' 10 games.

He has thrown for 33 touchdowns which is the fourth-most in the country as he's tied with USC quarterback Matt Barkley. That's only one less than Kellen Moore and two more than Andrew Luck. He's thrown for at least three touchdowns in eight of the Bears 10 games this season.

Griffin has 38 total touchdowns on the year.

With all of those great numbers, he has only thrown five interceptions. That's three less than Andrew Luck, two less than Matt Barkley and one less than Kellen Moore.

There's no question he has the numbers that can compete with any other candidate on the Heisman ballots. The one thing that may prevent him from winning the award is his team's record as the Bears are 7-3 right now.

That doesn't look good as Trent Richardson's Alabama Crimson Tide are 10-1 and the No. 2 team in the country and may very well reach the national championship. Brandon Weeden's Cowboys and the Cardinal Andrew Luck are also 10-1 and will likely reach a BCS bowl.

That may work against him, but when you look at the losses, it's really not Griffin's fault for his team's shortcomings.

The loss against Kansas State...sure he threw a interception that set up the Wildcats' game-winning field goal. But he threw for 346 yards and five touchdowns. The defense shouldn't have allowed 210 rushing yards and gave up 35 points.

The second loss, Griffin had no chance as the defense gave up 681 total yards and 55 points. He did do the best he could throwing for 430 yards and three touchdowns, but of course, that was nowhere close to being good enough.

Almost the same thing goes as they lost to the Oklahoma State Cowboys. The Bears defense gave up 601 total yards and an inexcusable 59 points. Griffin only put the ball in the end zone twice, but he did throw for  425 yards. Regardless, it wasn't going to be enough.

If you have noticed the pattern in all of the losses, the defense is absolutely Charles Barkley-terrible. In fact, they're ranked 111th in the country as they give up 36 points per contest. Griffin can only do so much. He may be a Heisman candidate, but he isn't Superman.

You add those numbers and the team's success to the fact that he's playing for the Baylor Bears. This is a team that nobody was talking about before the season started. Everybody was waiting for November to start so they could enjoy some basketball success.

Griffin didn't play a cupcake schedule like Kellen Moore and Case Keenum did. Even Andrew Luck is playing in a watered down Pac-12. He played in the Big 12 which is probably the deepest conference in college football this season and could be argued that they're better from top to bottom than the SEC.

He isn't playing behind a great offensive line like Andrew Luck is. Griffin has been sacked 22 times this season which isn't that bad, but if it wasn't for his running ability, those numbers would be a lot higher.

Griffin is also playing with only one solid wide receiver in Kendall Wright. His wide receiver corp isn't loaded like Matt Barkley or Brandon Weeden's is. 

He has done a lot more with a lot less this season, and he deserves to receive credit for it.

The 2011 Heisman trophy should go to Robert Griffin III.

Randy Chambers is a B/R Featured Columnist that covers College Football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or [e-mail]