Top 10 college football quarterbacks going into 2017 spring practice
By John Buhler
Baker Mayfield
Quarterback, Oklahoma Sooners
The Bedlam Series between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State might end up being the must-see game of rivalry week in college football. That’s because the quarterback play in that game will be nothing less than tremendous. Oklahoma State’s Mason Rudolph has the higher NFL ceiling, but Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield might win the 2017 Heisman Trophy and the national title.
While he did get arrested in Fayetteville, Arkansas this offseason, Mayfield came back to Norman with a mission in 2017. He was granted a fifth year of eligibility to hopefully three-peat in the Big 12, reach the College Football Playoff again and contend for the Heisman.
In two years as the Sooners starting quarterback, Oklahoma has won two Big 12 Championships and finished in the top four of the Heisman voting both years. While his team didn’t reach the Playoff last fall, Oklahoma’s non-conference schedule shouldn’t be as a brutal. The Big 12 should be better as a whole, so Oklahoma can definitely make the College Football Playoff even with one loss.
Since becoming the Sooners starter in 2016, Mayfield has completed 69.5 percent of his passes for 7,665 yards, 76 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. His yards per attempt of 10.1 is otherworldly. The kid loves to sling it deep in Lincoln Riley’s Air Raid attack.
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Like with Ohio State’s J.T. Barrett, Mayfield’s NFL future isn’t overly promising. He’s small and not all that athletic to play quarterback at a high level professionally. That being said, he has one more year to leave it all on the table for Oklahoma. If he bounces back emotionally from that arrest, Mayfield could be the third Heisman Trophy winning quarterback at Oklahoma in the Bob Stoops era, joining Jason White and Sam Bradford.