Drastic changes from Clemson, Oklahoma teams that met in 2015
To get at the heart of what has happened with Oklahoma's football team this season, it’s instructive to know how Baker Mayfield spent this free weekend. While his teammates were watching the unveiling of the College Football Playoff bracket — seeded No. 4, the Sooners will play No. 1 Clemson in the Orange Bowl — the junior quarterback was a couple hundred miles away in Arkansas, participating in activities related to an award.
Mayfield is a finalist for the Burlsworth Trophy, which goes to the “most outstanding player who began his career as a walk-on.” The winner will be announced Monday. A few hours after that, the Heisman Trophy finalists will be announced. Mayfield might be on that list, too.
“Surreal,” Mayfield calls his journey, which included walking on at Texas Tech and winning the starting job, then doing the same thing at Oklahoma — and then playing well enough that he’s a legitimate candidate for college football’s biggest individual honor. The description goes for the Sooners’ path to the Playoff, as well.
A year ago, Mayfield watched from the sidelines, ineligible to play after transferring from Texas Tech, as Clemson shredded Oklahoma 40-6 in the Russell Athletic Bowl. It was the Sooners’ fifth loss of 2015.
“A frustrating end to a frustrating season,” Mayfield said in a telephone interview with Paste BN Sports. “We got dominated. Not the way you want to end your season. Just a terrible feeling.”
The program’s trajectory appeared to be spiraling downward. Yet two months ago, Mayfield stood in the locker room at the Cotton Bowl after a discouraging loss to a bad Texas team. While outside there were gathering questions about where the Sooners were headed, Mayfield said he believed even then they had plenty of talent and potential. But reflecting now at what they’ve actually accomplished? Here comes that word again.
“Getting a little time off to look back on it and the journey, and to see how hard it’s been, it’s kind of surreal,” Mayfield said. “It’s been fun.”
Coach Bob Stoops says this team might be the best he’s had in 17 seasons at Oklahoma in terms of practice habits and collective desire to improve. Eight weeks later, Oklahoma (11-1) has won seven in a row and the Big 12 championship. The Sooners are playing very good football — “probably the best football of any team in the country,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said.
Playoff selection committee chairman Jeff Long, in explaining how Oklahoma fell from No. 3 to No. 4 in the final rankings, acknowledged that some committee members thought Oklahoma should be No. 1, “feeling they could beat anybody in the country right now.” Instead, Clemson got the top ranking. Oklahoma is No. 4. But considering where the Sooners came from — where they were both a year ago and in mid-October, the surreal journey from there to here — they’ll take it.
Both coaches downplayed the significance of the results from the bowl game last season.
“That’s a new team,” Swinney said, “and we’re a new team.” And he’s correct in many ways: Clemson won big without quarterback Deshaun Watson, who like Mayfield is a potential Heisman finalist. Oklahoma is completely different with Mayfield, with a new offense that began to jell around midseason, and with a defense that grew fangs at about the same time.
But yeah, there might be something more there. En route to the Playoff, Oklahoma beat Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and TCU — four of the five teams that beat the Sooners in 2014. One remains. But there’s obviously much more involved.
“Everything is motivation,” Stoops said. “They’re No. 1 and have been (ranked No. 1) a long time. They have the longest winning streak at 16 games. They beat us bad just a year ago. We have a chance if we win to move on to a national championship. We have our own motivation outside of (revenge).”
Said Mayfield: “It’s been a satisfying year. Hopefully, there are two more games to go.”