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Griffin's public pitch forces Baylor's AD to choose between donor sentiment and coaching experience before the December signing period.
19-19
over three seasons following a Big 12 championship run…
$4.2 million
and first-time hires from the broadcast booth typically land…
$3 million to $3.5 million
range with offset language that makes year-three buyouts workable
$2 million
annually at ESPN before his contract lapsed in 2023
Robert Griffin III, the quarterback who delivered Baylor its first conference title in sixteen years, told media this week he wants to coach the Bears. "If I was making all the decisions, the decision would have already been made," Griffin said. He played at Baylor from 2008 to 2011, won the Heisman Trophy, and left the program ranked in the top fifteen for the first time since 1986. He has zero coaching experience. The Bears fired Dave Aranda last month after going 19-19 over three seasons following a Big 12 championship run that now feels like borrowed time.
Griffin's name surfaced in text threads among Baylor's donor base within hours of Aranda's dismissal. Athletic director Mack Rhoades has spent the past three weeks interviewing coordinators from Power Four programs and one FCS head coach whose team went undefeated. Griffin was not on that list until he said the quiet part out loud. The median Power Five head coaching salary is now $4.2 million, and first-time hires from the broadcast booth typically land in the $3 million to $3.5 million range with offset language that makes year-three buyouts workable. Griffin earned roughly $2 million annually at ESPN before his contract lapsed in 2023. He has been working as an analyst for various outlets since, including a brief XFL stint in spring 2023 that ended when the league merged with the USFL.
The case for Griffin is narrow but legible. Baylor operates in a talent corridor it has never owned. Texas and Texas A&M pull first, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State pull second, and TCU pulls the kids who want private-school cache. Baylor wins when it out-recruits its weight class, which it did under Art Briles and briefly under Matt Rhule. Griffin's 2011 season—4,293 passing yards, 37 touchdowns, a Heisman, and a 45-38 bowl win over Washington—put Baylor on the recruiting map for the first time in the cable era. Alumni believe his name recognition still moves the needle with Texas high school coaches who were in their twenties when Griffin played. The gamble is that name recognition converts to wins before donors lose patience.
The case against Griffin is that coaching requires a skill set he has not demonstrated. He never held a position coach title, never spent a summer in a recruiting war room, and never had to manage a defensive coordinator whose scheme is failing in year two while the AD wants answers. Deion Sanders arrived at Colorado with name recognition and went 4-8 in year one after a 3-0 start. That program had lower expectations and a Pac-12 schedule. Baylor plays in the Big 12, where nine of twelve programs went to a bowl game last season and every offensive coordinator studies the same Air Raid derivatives.
Rhoades has not commented publicly on Griffin's interest. He is expected to name a coach before the December early signing period, which opens December 18. Coordinators currently interviewing include names from SEC and Big Ten staffs, and at least one Power Four offensive coordinator has told his agent he would take the job if offered before the weekend. Griffin's comments create a donor-relations problem: if Rhoades hires someone else, he will spend the next six months explaining why he passed on the Heisman winner. If he hires Griffin, he will spend the next three years explaining why the team is 6-6.
Griffin has started working connections. He met with former Baylor players during the Texas A&M game last month and has been texting recruits Baylor is pursuing in the 2025 class, according to two people who saw the messages. One recruit, a four-star linebacker from Houston, told his high school coach Griffin called him personally. The recruit had not listed Baylor in his top five before the call. He still has not, but the call happened, which means Griffin is operating as if the job is his to lose.
Baylor's next head coach will inherit a roster that went 3-9 this season and a facilities upgrade plan that requires $50 million in donor commitments. The athletic department collected $120 million in total revenue last fiscal year, ranking it tenth in the Big 12. Griffin would need to win immediately to justify his salary and keep donors writing checks. The question is whether Rhoades believes a first-time coach with no staff experience can do that, or whether Griffin's pitch—name recognition, recruiting upside, and a Heisman Trophy that still sits in McLane Stadium—outweighs the risk that hiring him delays a rebuild Baylor cannot afford to postpone.
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