What Won Baker Mayfield the Sooner QB Job?

Since the annual Red-White spring game, Sooner fans have largely been led to believe that the starting quarterback job for 2015 was going to be awarded to Baker Mayfield.

But at Big 12 Media Days last month, head coach Bob Stoops cautioned everybody not to rush to judgment on who the starting QB would be when Oklahoma started the season.

Suddenly, Trevor Knight and Cody Thomas, who started the final three games of the regular season a year ago when Knight was out with a neck injury, had closed the gap in the QB competition. At least that is what Stoops and the Sooner coaches were letting on, saying that they liked the progress of all three candidates and that the performance of Knight and Thomas in training camp was making the decision increasingly more difficult.

Nov 8, 2014; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Trevor Knight (9) throws during the game against the Baylor Bears at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

All things being equal, the one defining factor that new offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley and Stoops were looking for in all three of the quarterback candidates was decision making and the ability to react quickly to the situation at hand, make the right call and avoid costly mistakes that can kill a drive or even turn a winning effort into a losing one.

The final word really came down to Riley and who he thought was the best equipped to lead the Sooners’ new “Air Raid” offense that Riley brought with him from previous coaching stops at East Carolina and Texas Tech.

On Monday, the question of who would start the season at quarterback for Oklahoma was answered. It is Mayfield, which doesn’t come as a big surprise because that was the general feeling among Sooner fans throughout the process, despite the best efforts of the coaches to try to throw everyone off the scent.

But if it was as close a competition as Stoops and others tried to lead us to believe, what was the deciding factor that tipped the scales in favor of the newcomer Mayfield?

Riley broke it down for reporters after the Sooners’ practice session on Monday, which also was the first day of the 2015-16 fall semester at OU.

“Baker was able to minimize some mistakes a fraction more than those guys (Trevor Knight and Cody Thomas) did,” Riley told reporters, including one from the Oklahoma City Oklahoman. “That’s the biggest reason we made the decision.”

That may be, but you have to believe the fact that Mayfield played in that same offense (actually walking on as a starter) at Texas Tech and is much more familiar and comfortable operating in it gave him a giant advantage over the other OU starting quarterback hopefuls.

Mayfield did in fact play in the exact offense that Riley in incorporating at OU this season, but he also made a bothersome number of poor decisions that led to passes being picked off in his one season at Texas Tech. He did complete 64 percent of his pass attempts in eight starts as the Red Raiders’ QB. A more telling statistic, perhaps, is that his touchdown-to-interception ratio was a not-so-impressive 1.3 to 1.

Knight, who has been more of a zone-read, dual-threat quarterback in his time at Oklahoma also has had difficulty in the pass-efficiency category. The redshirt junior, who has started 15 games at QB for the Sooners, has thrown 23 touchdowns during that time to go along with 17 total interceptions.

Stoops and Riley have not ruled out the possibility that the Sooners could go with both Mayfield and Knight at quarterback throughout the course of the season, bringing in Knight in certain situations to create confusion for the defense (although they run the risk of creating confusion on the offense, as well), but it is fairly clear at this point that the No. 1 job has been entrusted to Mayfield.

Even so, if it becomes necessary to turn to the backup quarterback at some point in the season, it is somewhat more comforting to know that the No. 2 Knight is not coming on without the benefit a couple of season’s worth of game experience and against some very good teams.

The fact that there was a quarterback competition for the starting job probably helped bring out the best in all three of the candidates and helped them become better, which is a very good outcome for the Sooners looking longer term.