Baker Mayfield should be the Heisman front runner

As a two-time finalist for the Heisman Trophy, Baker Mayfield would like to close the deal in his final college football season.

The Heisman is considered college football’s most prestigious individual award. It has been presented every season since 1935 to the most outstanding player. Any player at any position in the Football Bowl Subdivision (in other college sports known as NCAA Division I) is eligible for the award.

The list of Heisman winners down through the years has been dominated by players at the halfback/running back position. In fact, the Heisman was awarded to a running back for 12 consecutive years between 1972 and 1983.

Looking at the list of the last 20 Heisman winners, however, if you didn’t know any better, it would seem that quarterbacks are the ones given first consideration for the award. Of the past 20 Heisman Trophy recipients, 14 have been quarterbacks, including two former Oklahoma signal callers (Jason White in 2003 and Sam Bradford five years later, in 2008).

An Oklahoma quarterback again is in strong consideration for the 2017 Heisman. In fact, Mayfield has been in the Heisman conversation for as long as he has been the Sooners starting quarterback, which is now in its third season.

Mayfield, a fifth-year senior who transferred to Oklahoma after playing one season as a walk-on at Texas Tech, finished fourth in the Heisman voting his redshirt sophomore season at OU and third in the balloting a year ago (behind Heisman winner Lamar Jackson of Louisville and Deshaun Watson of Clemson).

Practically everyone associated with college football, as well as close followers of the game, has an opinion on who should win the Heisman, and those opinions change and are challenged every week of the season. We are now in Week five of the 2017 college season, for example, and there already have been four different so-called front runners for this year’s Heisman.

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USC sophomore quarterback Sam Darnold was getting all the preseason love as the odds-on bet to cart home the Heisman at the end of this season. Then its was reigning Heisman winner Jackson who was the most talked about candidate after a Week 1 performance against Purdue.

After Mayfield carved up the Ohio State defense with surgical precision, completing 77 percent of his passes for 386 yards and three touchdowns, the Sooner quarterback jumped to the front of seemingly every Heisman watch list, including the weekly poll conducted by an ESPN panel of experts.

Last weekend, Penn State’s Saquon Barkley went wild running, receiving and returning the ball against Iowa. The junior running back was virtually unstoppable, totaling 358 all-purpose yards. And guess what? He’s your new Heisman front runner for the start of Week 5.

So who can we expect to get the Heisman headlines this time next week, or the week after that?

The reality is, the Heisman race is not a heavyweight prize fight or the FedEx Cup on the PGA Tour. You don’t officially earn points on a weekly basis that apply to the Heisman vote at the end of the season. The entire body of work over the full 12 games of the regular season is how the Heisman winner will be determined — and, yes, you better believe that “what have you done for me lately?” weighs more heavily than “what did you do in Week 2 or Week 4?”

We’re just barely a quarter way through the season, so relax, buckle up and enjoy the bumpy ride that lies ahead.

That said, if there were a Heisman awarded after each quarter of the season, who should it go to for Q1 this season. The choice is pretty universally between Mayfield and Barkley, and my vote goes to the Sooner who lowers the boom on opponents every time out. I’m speaking specifically about consistency.

Through four games this season, Mayfield has completed 75 percent of his pass attempts and thrown 101 passes without an interception. He ranks No. 1 in the nation in passing efficiency (228.3), No. 2 in yards per pass completion (17.5) and is tied for third in touchdown passes (13).

In the all-important category of point responsible for, Mayfield is seventh in the country with 78 points in four games, an average of 19.5 per game. By comparison, Barkley has six touchdowns this season (four rushing and two receiving) for 36 points in four games.

Mayfield is averaging 332.2 yards per game this season; Barkley is credited with 253.2 yards per game.

Next: Lincoln Riley is already moving up in the Sooner record book

The numbers speak for themselves…so far, that is.