Capital One Academic All-America® honorees Luck and Griffin Heisman release/Division I Capital One AAA Teams (PDF)
NOTE as of Dec. 10: Baylor's Robert Griffin was selected the 2011 Heisman Trophy winner.
NEW YORK, N.Y. – Quarterbacks Andrew Luck of Stanford University and
Robert Griffin III of Baylor University, who were named to the Capital One Academic All-America® Division I football team on Thursday, Dec. 8, are among the five finalists for the 77th annual Heisman Trophy Award. The Heisman will be presented on Saturday at the Best Buy Theatre in Times Square with the presentation televised live on ESPN at 8:00 p.m. (Eastern).
CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) presents and votes on the Academic All-America® Team awards. In January of 2011, Capital One joined as the entitlement rights holder for CoSIDA's Academic All-America® programs (the Academic All-America Team program and the Academic All-America Hall of Fame).
A member of the Capital One Academic All-America® Division I Football first team,
Luck is an architectural design major with a 3.48 G.P.A.
Griffin, a graduate student with a major in political science and a 3.67 G.P.A., earned second team Capital Academic All-America® honors.
Montee Ball of Wisconsin, Tyrann Mathieu of No.1 Louisiana State and Trent Richardson of
Alabama are the other finalists for the Heisman Trophy.
If he wins the Heisman Trophy, Luck would become the second Academic All-America® Team Member of the Year to win both awards in the same year.
Former Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel was the Heisman Trophy Award winner and the Academic All-America® of the Year award winner in 1996. Another Florida quarterback,Tim Tebow, won the Heisman Trophy in 2007 and was the Academic All-America® of the Year award winner in 2008 and 2009 (award then sponsored by ESPN the Magazine). Tebow earned first team Academic All-America® honors three years in a row.
The winner of the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award as the top quarterback in college football, Luck has led No. 4 Stanford to an 11-1 record and a berth in the Tostito’s Fiesta Bowl where the Cardinal will face No. 3 Oklahoma State (11-1) on Jan. 2.
In 12 games this season, the Houston, Texas native has completed 261-of-373 passes for 3,170 yards and 35 touchdowns. He ranks fifth in the nation with a 167.5 passing efficiency. As a starting quarterback, he has led Stanford to a 31-6 record, the most wins ever by a Stanford quarterback.
The Heisman Trophy runner-up in 2010, Luck has been honored as the Pacific-12 Conference Offensive Player of the Year the last two seasons. Named as a first team All-America quarterback by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), Luck has thrown 80 touchdown passes in his career, breaking the school record set by the legendary John Elway (1979-82). Luck has completed 686-of-1033 passes for 9,083 yards in his career.
His father, Oliver Luck, currently the Director of Athletics at West Virginia University, was a Rhodes Scholar finalist who graduated from WVU in 1982. A
two-time Academic All-America® quarterback for the Mountaineers, he was inducted into the Capital One Academic All-America® Hall of Fame in 2008.
While Luck won the Unitas Award and also earned the Maxwell Award (nation's top player) at the Home Depot ESPN College Football Awards show Thursday night (Dec. 9), Griffin was presented with the Davey O’Brien Award Thursday. Honored as the Big 12 Conference Offensive Player of the Year, Griffin has led Baylor to a 9-3 record by passing for 3,998 yards and 36 touchdowns. Ranked second in the nation by averaging 386.83 yards of total offense per game, Griffin has a 192.31 passer efficiency rating.
The NCAA leader in passer efficiency rating, he is on pace to break the NCAA record set by Colt Brennan of Hawaii (186.0) in 2006. He has also rushed for 644 yards and scored nine touchdowns.
Known as “RG3,” Griffin will lead Baylor into the Valero Alamo Bowl on Dec. 29 where the Bears will play Washington.