Had he been a split second faster over the summer, Robert Griffin would not have made it to Baylor’s fall camp.
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He would have been in Beijing competing for an Olympic medal.
For now, Griffin will have to settle with being Baylor’s most exciting football player since Mike Singletary made mincemeat of opposing running backs in the late 1970s.
Griffin, a world-class hurdler who doubles as a quarterback, has Baylor football relevant for the first time since coach Grant Teaff retired in 1992.
The Bears are 2-2, 2-1 since starting Griffin, who is 10th in the nation in passing efficiency.
The 6-foot-3, 205-pound 18-year-old has thrown for 756 yards, rushed for another 334, and has accounted for 12 total touchdowns without an interception.
But most important, he has the Bears believing under first-year coach Art Briles that they can win in the rugged Big 12.
"He’s extremely confident, and players latch on to that. It’s not fake. Players know when a guy is a fraud,” said Brent Venables, defensive coordinator for the top-ranked Sooners, who travel to Waco this weekend. "He’s obviously a terrific talent. Very, very explosive, very dangerous player.”
Baylor has outscored the opposition, 137-78, since inserting Griffin into the lineup in the second quarter of the opener against Wake Forest. Griffin led the Bears to a 45-17 victory over Washington State, its first non-conference win over a BCS opponent in a decade, before bringing them dangerously close to knocking off No. 24-ranked Connecticut.
After coming one-hundredth of a second from tying the national high school record in the 300-meter hurdles, Griffin skipped the spring semester of his senior year to enroll at Baylor.
Griffin, who originally committed to Briles in Houston before following him to Waco, wanted to play for a football coach who would also support his track career.
So after participating in spring football practice, Griffin trimmed up and hit the track.
After coasting to the Big 12’s 400-meter hurdles championship in May, Griffin began prepping for June’s U.S. Olympic trials.
But Beijing was not meant to be.
Griffin’s time was just 0.13 seconds away from lifting him to the finals.
He returned to Waco, where he eventually dethroned incumbent starting quarterback Blake Szymanski and Miami transfer Kirby Freeman.
"It’s real hard for a freshman to come in and get a starting job,” Griffin said. "In the spring, I was able to show what I could do in practice.”
Griffin still has aspirations of winning the Olympic gold.
"I’m definitely going to try and make it to London,” he said.
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