The 30 Greatest Heisman Trophy Winners in College Football History
By Zach Bigalke
17. Robert Griffin III (QB/Baylor)
Received 60.7% of the vote in 2011
- PASSING: 267/369 (72.4%), 3998 yards, 36 TDs
- RUSHING: 161 carries, 644 yards, 9 TDs
- RECEIVING: 7 receptions, 73 yards, 1 TD
- 8.76 yards/play
- 11.8 plays/TD
The only Heisman winner to have a better completion percentage in his winning season was Syracuse’s Ernie Davis, who threw and completed exactly one pass in 1961 for a perfect mark. Among actual quarterbacks, nobody has been more accurate throwing the ball than Robert Griffin III when he brought Baylor its first Heisman Trophy victory in 2011. Griffin scored three different ways — throwing for 3998 yards and 36 touchdowns, adding 644 yards and nine scores on the ground, and also catching seven passes on trick plays for 73 yards and another TD.
Though the voting was close between Griffin and Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, the Baylor star finished in first place in five of six regions of the country. (Luck won the far west.) Griffin led an offense that scored 45 points per game and which finished with the first 10-win season in Waco for the first time in three decades. Griffin’s Heisman helped lauch Baylor into the upper echelons of the Big 12 and the FBS and the Okinawa-born quarterback became just the third player born outside the US to win the award.