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Can Baker Mayfield Become the OU All-Time Passing Leader?

By Chip Rouse

Nov 14, 2015; Waco, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) during the game against the Baylor Bears at McLane Stadium. The Sooners defeat the Bears 44-34. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 14, 2015; Waco, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) during the game against the Baylor Bears at McLane Stadium. The Sooners defeat the Bears 44-34. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
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The top-four names on the list of Oklahoma career passing leaders are quarterbacks who played for Bob Stoops. The Sooners’ current starting QB, Baker Mayfield, is No. 8 on that list…and moving up.

Oct 3, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) looks to pass against West Virginia Mountaineers linebacker Shaq Petteway (36) at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 3, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) looks to pass against West Virginia Mountaineers linebacker Shaq Petteway (36) at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports /

Mayfield is entering just his second season at Oklahoma after transferring from Texas Tech, where he played one season as a freshman walk-on quarterback. He actually won the starting job at Texas Tech as a freshman in 2013 and started the first five games for the Red Raiders that season.

Last season turned out to be the perfect marriage between new Oklahoma offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley, the newly installed Air Raid offense and Mayfield at quarterback. In his debut season in a Sooner uniform, Mayfield accounted for a total of 4,105 yards (3,700 passing and 405 rushing) and 43 touchdowns.

Only former Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford has produced more touchdowns in a season by an Oklahoma quarterback (55 TDs in 2008) than Mayfield.

Mayfield trails Oklahoma’s all-time passing leader, Landry Jones, by almost 13,000 yards. So Jones’ career passing record appears reasonably safe, given that Mayfield will play just two more years at OU at most. The current Sooner quarterback is just 4,703 yards behind Bradford’s career passing mark, however, which would place him No. 2 in the Oklahoma career passing record book.

Bradford’s 4,720-yard single-season passing record, though, is well within Mayfield’s reach if he is able to stay healthy and now that he has a year of experience in Riley’s aerial assault offense.

Interestingly, the top-ten single-season passing performances in Sooner football history have all been recorded during Bob Stoops’ coaching tenure. As far as career passing leaders go, only Cale Gundy (No. 4 on the list) and Bob Warmack (No. 7) played under a different head coach than Stoops.

Mayfield is also on a pace to become the all-time passing leader at Oklahoma based on completion percentage. He completed 68.10 percent of his passes in 2015, which is the highest among the Sooners’ 10 best single-season passing performances.

Mayfield’s 173.32 pass-efficiency rating, recorded in just one season at OU, currently trails only Sam Bradford’s 175.62 career efficiency rating, achieved in just two full seasons.

Although Mayfield won’t leave Oklahoma as the Sooners’ career leader in passing yards, it would appear that he is destined to finish as one of the top three passing quarterbacks at a school that has won seven national championships and before 1999 didn’t put the ball in the air all that much.

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