OU football: All eyes on Bears quarterback Griffin

WACO, Texas — Baylor football has a prize possession in freshman quarterback Robert Griffin, and the Bears better do everything in their power to protect him.

Today Baylor plays host to Oklahoma, the nation’s No. 1-ranked team and the Big 12’s most physical defense. Earlier this week, Sooners defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said a "spy” defender would be assigned to track Griffin.

Perhaps the Bears’ offense should counter with a "spy” blocker in the backfield to run interference.

In every game this season, the OU defense has knocked the opposing starting quarterback out of the game, at least temporarily — Tennessee-Chattanooga’s Jare Gault (stinger); Cincinnati’s Dustin Grutza (broken leg); Washington’s Jake Locker (wind knocked out of him); and TCU’s Andy Dalton (right knee).

Griffin is a world-class hurdler and perhaps should start hurdling over defenders, a la Georgia’s Knowshon Moreno against Central Michigan last month.

Griffin stands 6-foot-3, but weighs just 200 pounds. He is a big, fragile target incapable of withstanding constant physical punishment.

He got pounded at Connecticut on Sept. 19 and was slow to get up several times.

"I have got to do a better job of taking some of the load off of him,” Baylor coach Art Briles said two days later, speaking literally and figuratively.

Today would be a good time to start.

John Rohde: 475-3099. John Rohde can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11 a.m. on New JOX 930 (AM).