Baker Mayfield Brings Heisman Trophy Back to Norman

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By Jacob Waxman, Staff Writer

After an exhilarating college football season, fulfilled with upsets and big wins, the season comes down to two things: the National Championship and the Heisman Trophy.

On December 8, at the Playstation Theatre in New York, New York, Mayfield was accompanied by two other Heisman Trophy finalists in Lamar Jackson and Bryce Love. Mayfield took home the trophy, with a whopping 732 first place votes, 657 votes more than second place, Bryce Love.

Throughout the season the Heisman front runner has changed multiple times. It started with USC’s Sam Darnold as the preseason favorite, which about four weeks in changed to Penn State Running Back Saquon Barkley who held the lead for at least three weeks. From there on, Oklahoma Quarterback Baker Mayfield took the country by storm. While playing against Oklahoma State, Mayfield threw for 598 yards and three touchdowns.

Mayfield’s journey didn’t come easy. Coming out of high school, he only had three D-1 offers, but none were at the level of competitiveness where he wanted to be. He then decided to walk-on at Texas Tech (TTU), later he earned the starting job, but due to a knee injury his season was cut short and ended up costing Mayfield his job. After realizing that he wouldn’t be getting time at TTU, Mayfield decided to leave and walk-on at Oklahoma, his dream school growing up. From there he took the team and country by storm finishing his last two seasons as a Heisman finalist and winner.

Although playing in the Big 12 doesn’t involve a tough defense to play against, Mayfield lit up the stat sheet and scoreboard the entire season, accounting for 46 out of 88 touchdowns that the team scored all year long. Mayfield threw for 4340 yards and 41 touchdowns, and ran for 310 yards and five touchdowns up to this point in the season. Mayfield and the Sooners have at least one more game left in their season, when they face Georgia in the Rose Bowl on New Years Day. If the Sooners beat Georgia, they will then face the winner of Alabama vs. Clemson, in the National Championship Game.

Mayfield will enter the 2018 NFL Draft at the end of the season, where he hopes to be drafted in the first round. Having an outstanding playoff performance will certainly help his draft stock rise.