Baker Mayfield: Unscripted

You know him as Oklahoma's fiery quarterback who finished fourth in Heisman Trophy voting in 2015 and third this season. Also as the Sooner who has accounted for 87 touchdowns, the most in program history in the first 25 games of a career. And as the guy who is on pace to set the FBS single-season record in passing efficiency rating.

You probably also know that Baker Mayfield is ultra-competitive. And that he hates losing.

Though incredibly serious about winning, one of the reasons Mayfield is 21-4 since he became OU's starter prior to last season is that he understands the value of having fun on game days. He knows that keeping teammates and coaches loose before and during games helps offset nerves and can result in his team thriving in pressure situations.

The redshirt junior recently took time to provide fans a behind-the-scenes description of OU game days in the following first-person piece. Much of what follows centers on tactics he uses to mentally put his teammates ? and himself ? in position to win on Saturdays. Sprinkled in are some random never-before-heard stories from the past two years that are sure to amuse.

On the team's pregame locker room routine:
"The pregame locker room is a combination of fun and intense. Near the end, we say our prayer and then Coach Stoops gives a little speech. By then, everybody's already amped up. We've already listened to whatever music we want to. All the guys who want to talk have already done that by then. So as we leave the locker room we slap the 'Play Like a Champion' sign. The other thing is we've had a boxing theme this year ? talking about taking it one round at a time for a championship fight. So Coach Stoops will say, 'Let's ring that bell.' We actually have a bell in our locker room now that one of the guys will ring. 'Ding, ding, ding!' That's the signal to leave the locker room."

On who's in charge of the music in the locker room:
"A lot of it is Orlando Brown and Matt Romar. They're usually the DJs. For the most part I approve of their selections. I mostly listen to my music on my headphones. Every year a team will have certain songs they'll get into a groove to and will get pumped up to together, so if I hear one of those I'll take my headphones off. This year it's been a lot of Lil Wayne. Last year it was a lot of Meek Mill or Kevin Gates because of Eric Striker. Dede Westbrook is such an avid Lil Wayne fan, so it's been mostly his music this year. Not that he's brought everybody on to it, but he's kind of brought back some of Wayne's old stuff."

"Alright Bake, let's have a day."

On his pregame routine with Coach Stoops:
"Coach Stoops is so professional. He and I have got a routine before the game, and I think it's partly superstition now. I know he's superstitious. He'll go down through the warmup lines when we're stretching and shake everybody's hand. When he gets to me he shakes my hand and says, 'Alright Bake, let's have a day. Have a good one.' Then he pats me on the back and walks off. He says the exact same thing every time. I tell him, 'Yes, sir.' It's kind of like, OK, that's it. It's game time. Let's go."

On what it's like in the huddle:
"You know the caliber of game you're playing in by the people who talk in the huddle. A lot of guys talk in games against opponents you should beat if you just do your job. So I just kind of sit back and let everybody get their nerves out and say what they want to say. But when it comes to the big-time games, you don't hear as many people talk. I think I do most of the talking in situations like that.

"Every once in a while Dede will say something, but he's not a super vocal guy anyway. Orlando Brown speaks. Other than that it's pretty much the coaches and the guys who have been in those situations before. It changes in the sense that everyone can get so serious, so that's when I try to tell them to relax and have fun. Every once in a while I'll try to say something that catches them off guard, just try to lighten the mood a little bit because you don't need to be so nervous and afraid to mess up that it actually causes you to do it.

"And not all of it is intentional. Talking back and forth with the refs; some of the things they say will catch you off guard. Multiple times they've complimented Samaje Perine's runs...

"I'm thinking, 'What's going on here? Why can't I get a compliment?'"

On his receivers making him look good:
"Sometimes I can't see them. I just trust them to be in their spot and they are. I haven't been able to see Geno Lewis on multiple throws, I know that. The touchdown pass to Dimitri Flowers at Texas Tech, I could see him but it was more just about giving him a chance. Some of the stuff I do is more like, 'Wow, they make me look good.'

"Like Dede's touchdown against Baylor, the one that was kind of a jump ball at the goal line. I just throw it up to him, and I'm on the ground and don't even see him catch it. I get up and am like, 'Wow, did he just catch that?' Or the rollout play against Baylor when I threw it to Jeff Mead. I didn't know he caught it with one hand until they played the replay in the third quarter. So I say, 'He caught that one-handed? I thought I threw that right on the money.' And everybody's like, 'No, that was a terrible throw.'"

On the time Dede Westbrook got his tooth knocked out:
"This is a good story. It was last year, first game. Akron. So it was the first game for both of us as Sooners. We're getting ready to go out there for our first drive and Shep (Sterling Shepard) and Durron (Neal) are asking him, 'You ready, Dede?' And I'm standing there saying, 'He's ready, he's ready,' Then I look at him and he doesn't have a mouthpiece in. We're like, 'You're not going to wear a mouthpiece?' He goes, 'I never have.' I looked at him and go, 'Dede, this is not Cameron Yoe High School.' And either Shep or Durron said, 'Yeah, this isn't junior college, either.' We told him he needed to put a mouthpiece in and he said, 'I've never worn one and I'm not going to start now.' We said, 'Alright. This is a little different. When you get hit at this level, it hurts.' But he said no.

"So a couple of drives go by and he doesn't get the ball. The first time he touches it is on a reverse. He gets the ball on and he gets hit?right?in the mouth. I mean they knocked the crap out of him. One of his teeth was already a little sideways, and they knocked it right out. So he's gushing blood, but we think it's funny because we tried to warn him. They called in an oral surgeon and he wired it in at halftime so it wouldn't fall out again. Dede listened after that. He said, 'Yeah, you guys were kind of right about that mouthpiece thing.' Ever since then he's worn one.

"It was just funny how we told him he needed to wear a mouthpiece and not even a quarter later he lost a tooth. But he did get free braces out of it, so I know he's pretty happy about that."

On his fourth-quarter exchange with Lincoln Riley during the OU-Texas game this year:
"We're playing Texas and we're trying to run off some clock in the fourth quarter because we're ahead. Rightfully so, we start to run the ball more often. But then all of a sudden we start to go under center, and it caught me off guard. I'm thinking, 'We've never done this.' But we kept doing it, and multiple times on first down we did it even when we handed it off, like an I-formation team.

I playfully said, 'Listen, I didn't transfer here to go under center every play'... Sure enough, the next play I was under center again.

"So Texas finally called a timeout to stop the clock. This is about mid-fourth quarter, it's OU-Texas, it's very serious. The whole time on the field I was yelling to Coach (Lincoln) Riley that I didn't want to go under center. So when I get to the sideline I go up to him as he's about to call the next play. At that point I playfully said, 'Listen, I didn't transfer here to go under center every play. If I wanted to do that I would have gone to the Big Ten.' All the guys were like, 'Did Baker really just say that?' Coach Riley just looked at me, smiled and told me to shut up and do my job. And sure enough, the next play I was under center again. It was a light moment, and things like that make everything more fun and keep everyone loose."

On occasionally getting under Riley's skin:
"In the Bedlam game, we were handing the ball off to Samaje I don't know how many times in a row on the last drive. Every single time Coach Riley was trying to call a play, I'm looking over at Mark Andrews and Jeff Mead, who were in the game at receiver, and I'm acting like I'm going to give them a pass play. So they start to laugh. And I tell Dimitri Flowers, who's in the backfield. Coach Riley was waiting for the clock to wind down before he signaled a play to us. So while we're waiting for him, we start signaling pass plays to him that we should call, or that we want to call. He was not very amused judging by the look on his face, because there was no way he was going to call a pass play at that point in the game. We just like to have fun."

On predicting the success of certain plays:
"The play that Dede scored against Oklahoma State this year, we called that when we were on the sideline.

"Normally he's on the right side but we flipped him around to the left side for this specific play to get him open. I looked at the offensive line before we ran out and said, 'You give me any time whatsoever and this will be a touchdown.'

"They looked at me kind of half believing. I said, 'No, no. I'm dead serious. You give me just a little bit of time and this will be a touchdown.' So we go out there to run the play. Dede's got one-on-one coverage, so I automatically know he's going to beat his man. I know it's going to be a touchdown. I have to move around a little bit and they give me just enough time to get the ball out and Dede does the rest. I ran down the field and was yelling at Orlando Brown and Bobby Evans, 'I told you! I told you!' They're laughing all the way.'

"The thing that makes it so enjoyable is that you execute it in practice and it gives you the confidence to go out and run it in the game."

"Alright Bake, let's have a day."

"I'm thinking, 'What's going on here? Why can't I get a compliment?'"

Players Mentioned

Mark Andrews

Orlando Brown

Bobby Evans

Dimitri Flowers

Geno Lewis

Baker Mayfield

Samaje Perine

Matt Romar

Sterling Shepard

Eric Striker

Dede Westbrook

Sponsors

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