Oklahoma football: How Baker Mayfield went from walk on to OU legend

Baker Mayfield went from a walk on from Austin to an immortal folklore hero in Norman, but how exactly did that happen?

Here’s a look at the eight moments that made Baker Mayfield an Oklahoma football legend.

A double-overtime comeback 31-24 win over Tennessee

Alright OU fans, look back and be honest with yourselves. For the first three quarters of the Sooners’ 2015 road game against Tennessee, at any point did you think to yourself “maybe it’s time to put in Trevor Knight?”

Those of you that said no are either outright fibbing or remembering things wrong, because Mayfield’s play through three quarters of that game was close to horrendous.

Yet it was when he looked his worst that he showed the first flash of what would make him a part of Oklahoma folklore forever.

With his back to the wall and trailing 17-3 midway through the fourth quarter Mayfield came alive. He extended a bootleg play by evading a trio of Tennessee pass rushers to throw a back-peddling touchdown pass to Samaje Perine that cut the lead to a touchdown with 8:21 to go in the game. Four minutes later he escaped what looked like a sure sack, rolled to his right and hit Sterling Shepard on a sideline route to convert a third down. He would cap off the drive with a perfect fade pass to Shepard in the right corner of the end zone to tie the game with just 41 seconds to play in regulation.

In the first overtime on fourth and one with the game on the line Baker Mayfield kept the ball on a read option, waited for Samaje Perine to throw a key block then bulled head first through the plane of the end zone to tie the game and send it to a second OT.

For his final act he hit Shepard again, this time in a huge third down situation on the right sideline. Shepard would work his own magic to turn that play into a touchdown to give the Sooners the lead. From there it was Zach Sanchez who sealed the win when he intercepted a Tennessee pass to set off a celebration.

While the plays in the fourth quarter and overtime were spectacular, the fact that they came on the road after three quarters of ineffective play were what set them apart. Sooner fans and coaches now had faith that No. 6 could bring them back from anything.