Baker Mayfield should take high road reflecting on Texas Tech days

Former Oklahoma All-American quarterback Baker Mayfield has never been shy about speaking — or even acting out — what’s on his mind.

To say the reigning Heisman Trophy-winner wears his emotions and feelings on his sleeve is an understatement. It’s also safe to say that Texas Tech’s loss was Oklahoma football’s gargantuan gain.

Practically  every living Sooner football fan no doubt is aware of Mayfield’s backstory. But for the very few who aren’t, Mayfield was recruited by very few programs out of Lake Travis High School in Austin, Texas. He elected to walk on at Texas Tech his freshman year and managed to win the starting quarterback job.

Mayfield started the first five games for Texas Tech in the 2015 season, all Red Raider wins, before being sidelined with an injury. Although he started a couple more games that season, his relationship with head coach Kliff Kingsbury and the Texas Tech coaches was never the same, according to Mayfield, after he went down with the injury.

Despite passing for over 2,000 yards and 12 touchdowns and adding 190 yards rushing his freshman season, Mayfield was not awarded a scholarship, something that he is still very bitter about and prompted sharp criticism by the three-year Oklahoma starter and No. 1 overall pick in the recent NFL Draft in the FOX Sports documentary “All the Way Up,” which showcases the Cleveland Browns’ rookie quarterback.

The documentary series, which FOX says “chronicles (Mayfield’s path) as he navigates the transition from Oklahoma Sooner to first selection overall in the 2018 NFL Draft,” premiered this past Sunday, and Mayfield held little back in expressing his indignation about the way he was treated during the time he was at Texas Tech.

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There is little question that Mayfield has no love loss and little respect for Kingsbury, his former Texas Tech coach.

"“It want from being ‘the guy’ for coach Klingsbury…and then when I got hurt, t changed…not a little bit, (but) a lot,” Mayfield said in part one of the new FOX series, according to a report by multiple news sources..“All of a sudden, it was as if I hadn’t played for him, hadn’t done anything for him.”"

What angered him the most, Mayfield said, was that he wasn’t offered a scholarship, especially after winning five games as a walk-on starter.

As a matter of full disclosure, Mayfield also walked on his first season at Oklahoma. He was later awarded a scholarship, however, and the rest is recent history.

The time at Texas Tech is certainly a relevant part of Mayfield’s career timeline, but matters little now. It is easy to understand the built-up bitterness and in-your-face attitude that the Sooner superstar harbors over what happened to him in the Red Raider program, but he needs to put that behind him and stop using the media as a forum to express his dislike and anger over what occurred at Texas Tech.

Instead he should be focusing on all that has gone right and the great things that have happened to him since since that are  largely the result of all that went wrong in Lubbock. There is no need or benefit from getting down in the mud and slugging it out with someone over a matter that can never be changed.

It’s better for Mayfield — who already has the reputation, right or wrong, of being too emotional and a hot head — to take the high road and reflect on what can happen to those who work hard, keep their head above water and persevere, despite the odds and extenuating circumstances.