Dede Westbrook, Baker Mayfield up for Top Honors at College Football Awards Show
By Chip Rouse
This is Oscar week in college football, and Oklahoma stars Dede Westbrook and Baker Mayfield are finalists for several of the top individual awards being handed out this week.
The two Sooner teammates are in Atlanta for Thursday night’s College Football Awards Show, and then they will accompany each other to New York City for the 82nd annual Heisman Trophy presentation on Saturday.
Westbrook is a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award, presented to the most outstanding receiver in college football. With nearly 1,500 receiving yards, 16 touchdowns and an average of 19.8 yards per reception. Twelve of his school-record 16 TDs have been for distances of greater than 40 yards.
The other two finalists for the Biletnikoff Award are Austin Carr of Northwestern and Zay Jones of East Carolina. Both have impressive numbers this season, but Westbrook should be the one to walk away with the Biletnikoff Award for 2016.
FanSided editorial director Michael Collins caught up with the Oklahoma senior receiver during media day for the College Football Awards on Wednesday and asked him how much fun it is to play in an explosive offense like Oklahoma’s that likes to stretch the field and throw deep.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Westbrook told Collins, “and the best thing about it is you never know when you’re going to get the ball.”
On the sender end of the receiving connection with Westbrook is teammate Mayfield, who is a finalist for two individual awards to be presented on Thursday night in Atlanta. The OU quarterback has the nation’s best pass efficiency rating (91.6), completion percentage (71.2) and yards per pass attempt (11.1). He averaged 305 passing yards per game this season and has thrown 38 touchdowns.
Mayfield, Lamar Jackson of Louisville and Deshaun Watson of Clemson are finalists for the Davey O’Brien Award, honoring college football’s best quarterback of the 2016 season. Mayfield, Jackson and Jabrill Peppers are finalists for the Maxwell Award, which is presented to the college player of the year.
The two Oklahoma teammates will be together again in New York this weekend, as will Clemson’s Watson, Louisville’s Jackson and Peppers of Michigan. All are finalists for the granddaddy of all college football awards, the Heisman Trophy.
Westbrook told Collins he was “extremely surprised” to be one of the five players invited to New York for the Heisman presentation ceremony. “I knew for a fact that Baker was going to be invited,” but said he was “extremely surprised” to learn that he was going to be joining his quarterback in the Big Apple.
Collins asked Westbrook if he was planning any surprises with the suit he was going to wear at the Heisman ceremony and if the OU standout receiver was going to stand out in the fashion department. “No, no, not flashy enough,” he quipped.
It’s hard enough to have one player from a school as a Heisman finalist, let alone two. And this is the second time that two Oklahoma players have been finalists in the same year. Jason White, who won the Heisman Trophy in 2003, was a finalist a second consecutive year in 2004 along with freshman running back sensation Adrian Peterson.
To show you how rare it is, two finalists from the same school has happened only five times in the 83-year history of the Heisman Trophy.
Oklahoma has been fortunate to have five Heisman Trophy winners: halfback Billy Vessels (1952), running back Billy Sims (1978), running back Steve Owens (1969), quarterback Jason White (2003) and quarterback Sam Bradford (2008).