Baker Mayfield Is Positioning Himself for Heisman Consideration

To say that Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield was a busy young man in Saturday’s 52-38 win over Tulsa would be a very modest way of describing his performance.

The Sooners ran 85 offensive plays against Tulsa, and Mayfield was front and center on 51 of them. The junior signal caller passed the ball 38 times, ran with it another 13 and personally contributed 572 net yards of Oklahoma’s 773 total yards for the game. Every time he threw or ran with the football, he averaged 11.2 yards per play.

About the only thing he didn’t do on offense was catch a pass or kick a field goal. Mayfield’s 572 passing and rushing yards was the best individual performance in Oklahoma’s illustrious football history. His 487 passing yards was the fourth best in program history, and he accounted for six of the Sooners’ seven touchdowns on Saturday (four passing TDs and two rushing TDs).

Sep 12, 2015; Knoxville, TN, USA; Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) rushes against the Tennessee Volunteers during the second half at Neyland Stadium. Oklahoma won 31-24. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports

After the Texas Tech transfer’s incredible individual performance in OU’s third victory of the 2015 season, his name has now surfaced in the Heisman conversation, and deservedly so based on his performance over the last five quarters.

Mayfield’s numbers in the fourth quarter and overtime of the Tennessee game, throwing three touchdown passes and running for a Sooners’ TD in the first overtime, brought then 19th-ranked Oklahoma back from what looked like an insurmountable 17-3 deficit at the start of the final period to claim a huge road win against a much-improved opponent from the SEC.

The momentum from the Tennessee game obviously carried over to last Saturday for Mayfield, who almost single handedly outscored the visiting Golden Hurricane. With four passing touchdowns and two rushing TDs, the Oklahoma quarterback accounted for six of the seven Sooner touchdowns on the day. So accounting for touchdowns alone, it was Mayfield 6, Tulsa 5.

ESPN.com publishes a weekly Heisman Watch poll in which a panel of 10 ESPN college football experts vote for and rank their top Heisman candidates for the 2015 season. Mayfield currently stands No. 5 on the list after receiving high marks for his performance at Tennessee and his record-breaking numbers of this past weekend.

Sep 19, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) runs with the ball while being pursued by Tulsa Golden Hurricane safety Jeremy Brady (22) during the third quarter at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

Of the four Heisman hopefuls who ESPN.com has ahead of Mayfield at this early stage of the season, three are running backs and the other, Trevone Boykin of TCU, is a quarterback. In fact, of the top 14 names on ESPN’s Heisman Watch list, eight are quarterbacks. This is not all that surprising, considering that a quarterback has won the Heisman the last five years and in 13 of the past 15 seasons, including Jason White (2003) and Sam Bradford (2008) of Oklahoma.

Mayfield and Boykin are the only names on the watch list through Week 3 representing the Big 12. Boykin’s name has been on the Heisman hopeful list for 2015 since the end of last season, when TCU finished the year out strong with a 12-1 record, a No. 5 ranking in the final College Football Playoff rankings, and a 42-3 throttling of Ole Miss in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.

Everybody knows what an outstanding quarterback Boykin has become in his fours years starting at the position for the Horned Frogs. He has always been dangerous with his legs, but he has become an excellent passing quarterback as well.

Mayfield is only in his third season as a starting college quarterback. He started eight games as a freshman walk-on at Texas Tech in 2013 before transferring to Oklahoma. He sat out all of last season because of NCAA transfer rules, and won the OU starting job over Trevor Knight in preseason camp in August.

Most college experts and the media that cover the Big 12 would rank Boykin as the top quarterback in the Big 12 coming into the 2015 season. After three games this season, though, Mayfield’s numbers very comparable to Boykin’s.

Boykin has completed 65.7 percent of his passes (65 of 99) for 985 yards, an average of 9.9 yards per completion, and an overall quarterback rating of 86.4, according to ESPN.com. He also has gained 148 yards rushing and has 2 rushing TDs.

Mayfield’s numbers after three games look like this: completion rate of 67.3 (74 of 110) for 1,072 yards, 9.7 yards per completion and a quarterback rating of 79.8. He has 139 rushing yards in three games and 4 rushing TDs.