Oklahoma football: The good and bad of Baker Mayfield’s denied appeal

A source told ESPN.com Monday that Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield would not be granted his transfer appeal. While Mayfield was just a walk-on last season at Texas Tech with no guarantee of any financial aid, Mayfield is getting the same treatment as a scholarship player would in his situation.

Which doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Baker Mayfield went in to Lubbock, Texas last season and won the starting job for the Texas Tech Red Raiders. He helped Texas Tech to a big start, but by the end of the year, Davis Webb was the first string for the Kliff Kingsbury-led Texas Tech team.

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So now, Mayfield will have to sit out for a year like every other transfer. Though, Baker Mayfield doesn’t have a scholarship to fall back on.

There is some good and some bad to the NCAA ultimately denying Mayfield’s appeal.

Obviously, Oklahoma’s depth at quarterback becomes a huge concern. Trevor Knight has helped OU to a 4-0 start and appears to not have missed a beat since the 2014 Sugar Bowl. However, the coaches have really limited his role as an option quarterback.

It’s not a bad thing by any means. The college football season is a marathon, not a race. However, it seems like the coaches have watered down their game plan to avoid any costly injuries to their first string quarterback.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for Knight playing an entire season without any injuries. However, I hope it isn’t too late before the coaching staff really opens the playbook.

The Sooners could use that second option from Baker Mayfield, but Knight is getting the job done for now. The very small sample size backup quarterback Cody Thomas provided us at Tulsa showed a little potential, but not having Baker immediately eligible definitely opens the door for the return of Blake Bell.

The Belldozer hasn’t been racking in the receiving yards at his new position, though, his blocking ability has been quite impressive early in the season.

With no Mayfield, Bell presumably is the third-string quarterback. And if Knight were to ever miss an extended period of time, it makes you wonder if the coaches would plug in Bell as the first string instead of Thomas.

That’s a whole other controversy in itself, which brings me to the somewhat “good” side of the NCAA denying Baker Mayfield’s appeal.

The Sooner fans really don’t have a choice, but to be on the Knight bandwagon. If Baker Mayfield were eligible and Knight had a bad game, there’s no doubt a large group of fans would call for Baker Mayfield to take Knight’s job.

I’m personally glad we won’t have this conversation, though. There’s no need to second guess Trevor Knight, unless of course for some reason his performance dramatically dropped off from week to week.

The bad outweighs the good here, because depth is a real issue for Oklahoma at QB. However, the Sooners will stay play on Saturday and they’ll do it with Trevor Knight behind center.