The bridesmaid dresses are starting to pile up for Stanford.
That's three consecutive years now that a Cardinal player has finished second in the Heisman Trophy balloting -- Toby Gerhart in 2009, Andrew Luck in 2010 and now Luck again in 2011.
No need to wake up Katherine Harris or start recounting hanging chads. This one is in the books. The voters have spoken, and they say Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III.
Luck entered the season as the Heisman favorite after his silver-medal finish last season. But a loss to Oregon swayed voters and Luck didn't excite the way the flashier Griffin did.
"I think obviously Robert is a great player and very much well-deserved," Luck said when asked during the Heisman presentation show what he could have done differently. "I'm not going to lament on something that I could have done or had an opportunity to do. I think it's very much well-deserved for Robert. I'm just proud to be here and very honored to be here."
Griffin received 405 first-place votes. Luck, who won the Far West region, received 247 first-place votes. Alabama running back Trent Richardson had 138, LSU defensive back Tyrann Mathieu had 34 and Wisconsin running back Montee Ball had 22.
Despite a late campaign push over the past couple of weeks by head coach David Shaw -- who attempted to show voters what Luck does mentally at the line of scrimmage (which far exceeds anything any college quarterback has done previously) -- voters still picked the exciting and athletic Griffin over Luck and Richardson.
Several times over the last couple of weeks, Shaw made an appeal to voters, comparing Luck to 1997 winner Charles Woodson for doing something that no other player had done with his play calling. But that plea apparently fell on deaf ears.
Luck will leave Stanford as one of its most celebrated players -- going 23-2 over the past two seasons and landing the Cardinal in a second consecutive BCS bowl game. He passed John Elway (another Heisman runner-up) as the all-time touchdown leader and is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft.