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Texas Defense: 'We Don't Plan On Letting Anyone Win The Heisman On Us'

After leading the No. 17 Baylor football team to its most successful season in over 30 years, junior QB Robert Griffin III has emerged as one of the front-runners in a tightly-contested Heisman race.

Griffin's stats have been unreal all season, as he's completed 72.6% of his passes for 3,678 yards, 34 TD's and only 5 INT's while rushing for 612 yards and 7 more TD's. Most importantly to Heisman voters, he's lead fourth-quarter comebacks against national powers Oklahoma and TCU on national TV this season.

He appeared to suffer a concussion at the end of the first half of the Bears 66-42 victory over Texas Tech on Saturday, but the school has said he is "probable" for next Saturday's game against No. 23 Texas.

But the young Longhorns defense, which has improved significantly since losing two consecutive blowouts to Oklahoma and Oklahoma State earlier in the season, is in no mood for a coronation in what could be Griffin's last game in Waco:

 Jim Vertuno 
 LB Acho message to RG3: "We don't plan on letting anyone win the Heisman against us."

Acho, one of the team's only seniors, has emerged as a star at LB in recent weeks, averaging 12.25 tackles over the last four games while covering the entire field at 6'2 240.

He spear-heads a deep and talented defense with future NFL players on all three levels, with former five-star recruits Jackson Jeffcoat and Alex Okafor as well as Kheeston Randall on the defensive line to Acho, Keenan Robinson and Jordan Hicks at the linebackers and a bevy of underclassmen, from Carrington Byndom to Kenny Vaccaro and Quandre Diggs, in the secondary.

It should be an intriguing strength-on-strength matchup when they head into Waco to face Griffin Saturday.

For the latest news and notes on the Longhorns, head over to Burnt Orange Nation, while the brand new Our Daily Bears has you covered on everything Baylor related.

Photographs by jamesbrandon, jdtornow, phlezk, flygraphix, mcdlttx, tomasland, and literalbarrage used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.