Baker Mayfield becomes Oklahoma’s 6th Heisman Trophy winner

We’ve been saying it for over a month, but now we can say it for real and with conviction: OU quarterback Baker Mayfield is the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner.

Mayfield won college football’s most prestigious individual honor in a landslide over runner-up Bryce Love of Stanford and last year’s Heisman winner, Lamar Jackson of Louisville.

The Oklahoma quarterback topped off a week for the ages in which he also won both the Maxwell Award and the Walter Camp Award as college football’s most outstanding player in 2017, the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback of the Year Award and the Associated Press Player of the Year Award.

Mayfield is the 83rd college player to be honored with the Heisman Trophy and the sixth Oklahoma Sooner to win the award, joining Billy Vessels (1952), Steve Owens (1969), Billy Sims (1978), Jason White (2003) and Sam Bradford (2008).

Only USC and Notre Dame have had more Heisman winners than Oklahoma. Both schools have had seven Heisman winners.

Mayfield, who walked on at Texas Tech to begin his college career and walked on at Oklahoma after transferring to OU after the 2013 season, received 2,398 Heisman votes, 1,098 more than Stanford’s Love. That was the third largest margin of victory in Heisman history. The Sooner quarterback and team leader received 732 first-place votes, 87 second-place votes and 28 for third place.

Mayfield has passed for 4,340 yards this season with 41 touchdowns and only five interceptions. He leads the nation with a 71-percent completion percentage, a record-setting passing efficiency rating (203.8), yards per completion (16.6) and pass plays of more than 20 yards (75). He has a 34-5 record as the Oklahoma starting quarterback the past three years.

This is the third consecutive year Mayfield has been a Heisman finalist. He was joined at the ceremony at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel on Saturday night by a large group of Sooner supporters, including Lincoln Riley and former OU head coaches Bob Stoops and Barry Switzer and, as always, former OU Heisman winner Billy Sims.

According to staff writer Brooke Pryor of the Oklahoma City Oklahoman, Mayfield is the eighth player from the state of Texas to win the Heisman, but the first player to wear a No. 6 jersey.

Mayfield still has some unfinished business to attend to this season. He says he returned for his final season of eligibility for the chance to win a national championship. That would be the ultimate capper to a truly outstanding season and college career for the Sooner Magic Man.

This is the second season in the last three that this year’s Heisman winner has led the Sooners to a spot in the College Football Playoff. Oklahoma will meet SEC champion Georgia in one of the national semifinal games on New Year’s Day.