Baker Mayfield’s Sooner pride and Texas Longhorn antipathy stirring up hornet’s nest
By Chip Rouse
Former Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield apparently has too much time on his hands this offseason.
This past week. the OU All-American and 2017 Heisman Trophy winner was back in Norman to host a one-day football camp for kids in grades one through eight. Fellow Oklahoma star and Heisman winner Billy Sims and legendary head coach Barry Switzer were also there for the festivities.
One of the highlights of the day was when Mayfield ran a pitch play to the 63-year-old Sims, with 81-year-old Switzer out front as the lead blocker.
Later that day, Mayfield appeared as a guest on KREF 1400 Sports Talk Radio, and the show’s host baited the former OU star with questions about the Sooners’ hated rivals, the Texas Longhorns, and their quarterback Sam Ehlinger.
Mayfield grew up and attended high school near Austin, in the epicenter of the Longhorn Nation, but you would never know it from the way he talks about the Sooners’ chief rivals. Mayfield should get his hands on one of those T-shirts with the inscription: I may have been born in Texas, but I am a Sooner fan forever.” He certainly bleeds Sooner crimson, sometimes to a fault, as we’ve seen before.
Soon Mayfield will be back in Ohio attending his second training camp as the quarterback of the NFL Cleveland Browns. But this past week, he took the opportunity to take a shot at Texas and stir the pot for this year’s annual Red River Showdown in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas in between the Sooners and Longhorns.
Mayfield was asked about all the preseason hype about Texas football being back and talk of the Longhorns as a possible national title contender this season:
"“They said the same thing about Texas when they beat Notre Dame a couple of years ago (in 2016), and they won like three games after that,” multiple media sources quoted Mayfield’s razor-sharp response."
And the former OU quarterback was just getting warmed up. He was reminded of Ehlinger’s declaration that Texas being back after the Longhorns’ Sugar Bowl victory over Georgia last postseason.
"“He (Ehlinger) couldn’t even beat Lake Travis, so I don’t really care (about) his opinion on winning,” Mayfield said in the radio interview."
Mayfield was referencing the fact that both he and Ehlinger played for rival schools in the Austin area. Mayfield starred at Lake Travis; Ehlinger played for Westlake.
"“Westlake is a great program,” Mayfield continued, “but the best two quarterbacks to come out of there were Drew Brees and Nick Foles.”“That will stir the pot,” he said. “He doesn’t like me, and I hope knows I don’t like him either.”"
Mayfield defeated Ehlinger and Texas 29-24 the only time they faced each other in the Red River game, in 2017. Mayfield threw for 302 yards in that game and two long touchdowns. Ehlinger was equally impressive, albeit in a losing cause, totaling 384 yards of offense (278 passing and 106 rushing).
Last season, the two teams split two games, with the Longhorns winning 48-45 in the regular season, and Oklahoma coming out on top in the Big 12 Championship, 39-27.
Everyone knows Mayfield is an emotionally charged person and highly competitive, but sometimes it is better just to leave things unsaid.
He is obviously harbors a lot of pride and passion about the Red River rivalry, especially being a Texan by birth but finding his calling north of the Red River. But stirring the pot now can only come back to bite the Sooners in October.
Oh, and by the way, Mayfield won’t be playing in that game, but Ehlinger will.