RG3 wins Heisman; NFL next?

ROBERT GRIFFIN III's 4 years at Baylor have included a serious knee injury, 46 school records, the best season the Bears have had in decades, and now a Heisman Trophy.

He has one more season of eligibility left and could return to school. Or not.

RG3 to the NFL?

"Whether I won the award or not, it wasn't going to sway me on coming back or not," Griffin said Saturday night.

Griffin won the 77th Heisman Trophy, beating out Andrew Luck, who has already been penciled in as the No. 1 pick in April's NFL draft.

Luck is considered one of the most NFL-ready prospects to ever come of out college, having played brilliantly in Stanford's pro-style offense the last three seasons.

"Congratulations," Luck said to Griffin as he headed toward the stage. "Well-deserved."

Luck, meanwhile, wound up with another silver medal in his pursuit of the bronze trophy.

A year ago, he finished 1,184 points behind Auburn's Cam Newton. This time, he was 280 points behind Griffin.

Close - but still at an arm's length from striking the Heisman pose.

"Obviously, I'd love to win," Luck said. "But my motivation comes more from trying to win football games with my team. It's the wins and losses that count."

Griffin totaled 1,687 points in the voting, topping Luck, Alabama's Trent Richardson (978), Wisconsin's Montee Ball (348) and LSU's Tyrann Mathieu (327), who all attended the ceremony in New York.

The deadline to for underclassmen for declare for the NFL draft is Jan. 15.

The 6-2, 220-pound Griffin, who was also an NCAA All-America hurdler, is an underclassmen only in a football sense. He's already completed a political science degree and was working on a master's in communications this season, which would have been his senior year if he had not torn a ligament in his right knee in the third game of his sophomore season. He took a medical redshirt that gave him an additional season of eligibility, so he could return to Waco, Texas, in 2012 and take a shot at leading Baylor to even bigger goals.

Griffin said he'll wait until after the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 29 against Washington in San Antonio to make up his mind.

After practice yesterday, Washington coach Steve Sarkisian said going against the Heisman winner won't provide more motivation for his team.

"It's an opportunity for us to go to a bowl game, play on national television against the [15th-] ranked team in the country," he said. "That's motivation in itself. We want to go down and play well, perform well in front of our fans, perform well on national television, and for ourselves. If he didn't win the Heisman, we wouldn't try as hard? I doubt that. We're going to try really hard."

Auburn tailback Mike Dyer was suspended indefinitely for violating undisclosed team rules and won't play in the Chick-fil-A Bowl against Virginia on Dec. 31.

Dyer is the first Auburn back to rush for 1,000 yards in each of his first two seasons.

* Iowa defensive coordinator Norm Parker said he's retiring after 13 seasons with the Hawkeyes. The 70-year-old Parker said in a statement that he's stepping down following Iowa's matchup with Oklahoma in the Insight Bowl on Dec. 30. The Hawkeyes have not yet said who will replace Parker.

* UCLA interim coach Mike Johnson has been contacted about the head coaching position at Akron, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Johnson was UCLA's offensive coordinator this season and took over the program after Rick Neuheisel was fired 2 weeks ago. UCLA meets Illinois in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl on Dec. 31.