What Baylor's Robert Griffin Needs to Do to Get Back in the Heisman Race

Who would have ever thought that junior quarterback Robert Griffin would ever be this good so fast? His first season as a starter last year, he was good, but he wasn't great.

He completed a solid 67 percent of his passes for 3,501 yards and threw for 22 touchdowns to eight interceptions.

Almost any coach in the country would take those numbers from their starting quarterback.

But this season his numbers are off the charts. When watching him, I have to check and make sure that's still a No.10 on his chest and not an "S".

The guy is playing out of his mind.

He has the highest completion percentage in the country with a ridiculous 80 percent. I don't care who you're playing or how you get the completions. When 80 percent of your 142 pass attempts get completed, you have some serious skill.

There was a time this season were he had more touchdown passes than incompletions. Make sure you read that sentence again so you understand his accomplishments.

Griffin has thrown the most touchdown passes this season with 19 in only five games. That's more than Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson and Kellen Moore.

His 1,520 passing yards is good for 18th-best in the country. Which is right above Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees.

Probably the most impressive stat of all though is the fact that he's only thrown one interception so far. That's three less than Moore, one less than Luck and the same amount as Wilson.

Talk about killing the dual-threat quarterback stereotypes.

The problem is, that one interception came in a close game when the Bears were clinging on to a 35-33 lead over Kansas State. It set up a 31-yard game-winning field goal for the Wildcats which resulted in Baylor's first loss of the season.

The voters wouldn't have wanted to give the Heisman to a player that plays for Baylor. Especially when the other candidates have much bigger names and play for schools like Stanford and Wisconsin. The voters were looking for anything to hurt his case and they got it with that interception. 

All of the other Heisman quarterback contenders have not lost a game yet and all have their teams in the National Championship conversation.

Baylor is barely in the Top 25 as they sit ranked No. 20.

Before that interception happened, I had Griffin as the favorite to win the award. Now, he will need some help and some outstanding performances.

The good news is Baylor is heading into a brutal stretch of the Big 12 schedule and Griffin will have plenty of big stages to make a strong case. Games against Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Texas. 

That's a more difficult schedule than if you take all of the other quarterback candidates schedules and combine them together.

Luck and Wilson remain the front-runners for the Heisman award, but if Griffin can lead the Bears to a Big 12 title, he should win the award.

It may sound like that's impossible, but nobody would've believed Baylor would be where they are right now.

And with the play of Griffin so far I wouldn't bet against him.