Baylor running back Lache Seastrunk is so confident in his abilities, he already has laid claim to the 2013 Heisman Trophy.

"I'm going to win the Heisman. I'm going to win it in 2013," Seastrunk told the Sporting News this week. "If I don't, I'm going to get very close. I'm shooting for that goal. I will gladly say it."

Baylor coach Art Briles told the Sporting News that Seastrunk's claim on college football's top individual award is "certainly a goal that's realistic."

In Baylor's first seven games this season, Seastrunk averaged fewer than 26 yards a game, but he emerged as a star in November. In Baylor's final five games, he averaged 138.6 yards and ran for five touchdowns, including three against Oklahoma.

Seastrunk, playing in his first season of college football, also caught five passes for 91 yards and a touchdown Nov. 1 against Kansas, but his most eye-opening performance came Nov. 17 against Kansas State.

That's when Seastrunk ran for 185 yards and a touchdown against the No. 1 team in the country.

"I feel like there's no back who can do what I do," he told the Sporting News. "I know I'm the fastest back in the country. I know I'm the best back in the country. Nobody's going to work harder."

Seastrunk will be a junior next season after redshirting at Oregon in 2010 and sitting out a season after he transferred to Baylor.

His recruitment at Oregon is at the center of the NCAA's ongoing investigation of whether the Ducks improperly used a football scouting service run by Willie Lyles, who had a close relationship with Seastrunk. Oregon revealed that it paid Lyles $25,000 for mostly worthless, outdated profiles and information.