Robert Griffin III Reveals How Mack Brown and Texas Nearly Changed Baylor Football History

Griffin says today’s transfer landscape could have sent him to Texas, creating a fascinating alternate history for both Big 12 programs.

via Baylor Athletics

Robert Griffin III’s career changed Baylor football forever, but the quarterback now says the modern transfer portal era might have redirected him to Texas before that transformation ever took place.

During an appearance on “The Joel Klatt Show,” Griffin revisited a recruitment in which his elite athleticism created almost as many questions as answers. Griffin described himself as a “world-class” track athlete coming out of Copperas Cove, Texas, less than 90 miles from Waco, but said programs such as Texas and Texas A&M were unsure whether his slight frame could “translate over to playing quarterback at that level.”

Baylor had no such hesitation, recruited Griffin as a quarterback and earned his commitment. Texas pursued him as a safety, a miscalculation Mack Brown acknowledged after seeing Griffin up close.

Baylor entered its November 2008 trip to Austin with a 3-6 record, but played fifth-ranked Longhorns even through the first quarter. Griffin scored on a 3-yard run, then found Kendall Wright for a 55-yard touchdown that tied the game at 14. The Longhorns eventually pulled away for a 45-21 victory, but Brown sought out Griffin at midfield afterward.

Brown offered to take RG3

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“If you want to transfer to Texas right now, we will take you,” Griffin recalled Brown telling him on Klatt’s show. “We really messed it up in your recruiting. We shouldn’t have asked you to play safety, we should have asked you to play quarterback.”

Transferring would have meant sitting out a full season in the pre-transfer portal era, so Griffin remained loyal to the program that first believed in him as a quarterback. 

“If that happened now, you’re looking at a situation where that’s probably RGIII not playing at Baylor,” Griffin admitted.

An alternate universe

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A literal postgame transfer could not have placed Griffin on Texas’ 2008 team, but that roster provides the clearest picture of the opportunity he might have had if Brown had recruited him correctly from the beginning. The obvious obstacle was Colt McCoy, an established junior who finished second in Heisman Trophy voting.

In an alternate reality where Griffin started, however, Texas could have surrounded the freshman with receivers Quan Cosby and Jordan Shipley, running backs Chris Ogbonnaya, Vondrell McGee and Cody Johnson, and an offensive line led by All-Big 12 selections Adam Ulatoski and Chris Hall.

Cosby and Shipley combined for 181 receptions, 2,183 yards and 21 touchdowns. Texas also had a a litany of NFL defenders, featuring Brian Orakpo, Roy Miller, Sergio Kindle and Earl Thomas. The Longhorns finished 12-1 and beat Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.

Griffin produced 2,091 passing yards, 15 touchdowns and three interceptions at Baylor as a true freshman while adding 843 yards and 13 scores on the ground. With Texas’ protection and perimeter talent, a reasonable hypothetical projection could sit around 3,300 passing yards, 28 passing touchdowns and seven interceptions, plus 900 rushing yards and 14 scores, which could have easily placed him in the Heisman conversation and as one of the most productive Texas quarterbacks of all time.

Griffin eventually exceeded even that projection. During his 2011 Heisman season at Baylor, he completed 72.4% of his passes for 4,293 yards, 37 touchdowns, and six interceptions, then added 699 rushing yards and 10 scores.

Texas might have gained another transcendent dual-threat quarterback. Baylor, however, might have lost the player who gave the program its first Heisman Trophy and proved that its belief in him was more consequential than the offer that arrived too late.

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