Robert Griffin III’s college coach is not concerned
Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III (10) throws the ball to Redskins running back Roy Helu (29) against the Detroit Lions in the fourth quarter at FedEx Field. The Lions won 27-20. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Washington Redskins star second-year quarterback Robert Griffin III hasn’t looked like a star thus far in 2013, and it may just be bad luck, a sophomore slump, the ill effects of last year’s ACL tear, or a mixture of those three. RG3 has averaged more than a yard less per attempt than he did last season, and he also has four interceptions compared to just five touchdowns. It hasn’t been a year to write home about thus far for RG3, but we should still be confident in the talented QB’s ability to turn things around.
His former college coach, Art Briles of the Baylor Bears, certainly sounds confident in Griffin’s ability to get back on track, and he spoke at length to ESPN Radio’s Ryen Russillo on SVP and Russillo about his former superstar quarterback in Waco (hat tip to the Washington Post for finding this).
“We text quite often, about three or four times a week. You know, Robert’s a man. He’s a competitor. He’s a fighter. He’s a guy that’s very determined and very disciplined. So I don’t worry about Robert. I know where Robert’s heart is, I know where his mind is and I know where is passion is, and that’s fighting his tail off to be the best that he can possibly be. So all that stuff will take care of itself. It’s kind of like I always tell our players — it’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint. I mean, let’s be judged when judging time is. And judging time for all of us – NFL, college, high school – is at the end of the season. THAT’S when you’re judged.”
“I’m not concerned from a football standpoint, because I know that this game is a marathon, it’s not a sprint. And you’re usually only as good as what you were last week, and you’re worried about the next week, so you never really can enjoy or be despondent over what happened. So when it’s all said and done, I think the water will clear, and I think he’ll end up having a great season this year.”
Even though a college coach is probably never going to say anything bad about a former star, I still find it at least a little bit reassuring that Briles doesn’t have any issues with Robert Griffin III mentally and from a “football standpoint”. Griffin certainly has talent, and he also seems mentally tough enough to get out of this funk.
For instance, here’s what he said about what the team needs to do, via CSN Washington’s Rich Tandler, “I think the line you draw is not to relax. Don’t look at it as, ‘Hey, we did this last year. We can get out of this hole.’ You look to that as a sense of confidence like, ‘We know what this team is made of. We know what we can do.’”
“But you don’t look at that and relax and say, ‘Hey, we can just keep on losing, it will be all gravy.’ That’s not the way you approach it.”
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